Gundam Seed: Wolves of War
by Reis Nailo
Summary: Join Alex and Marisa Wallachia in their fight against the true enemies of mankind. What is their connection with Shiho Hahnenfuss, and how will they respond to the Gundams, much less the Grimaldi Falcon and his crew? This is done with Solid Shark's OK.
1. Chapter 1

**Gundam Seed: Wolves of War**

**Disclaimer: GS is not mine. Kenneth DiFalco and his Gray Demons and subsequent relations and other characters are the creation of Solid Shark, who is made of epic. They are used with his full permission and he will be my correspondence for future chapters involving them. There will be twists with them, once again, done with his permission. Needless to say, its got his own gears turning . . . so expect some great stuff. Now on with the show.  
**

**Prologue: Battle of Endymion**

On the darkened side of the moon, inside the Earth Alliance satellite base Endymion, a young man in his mid-twenties walked down the halls. Many personnel halted to salute him as he passed. Finally arriving at his destination he entered, promptly making his way to his seat while ignoring the looks of contempt and prejudice.

"You're late Wing Commander Wallachia." The base commander pushed up his glasses and glared down the bridge of his nose at the young high ranking officer. Said Wing Commander shrugged.

"There are times when being late is a boon. What's the situation?"

The young woman he took a seat beside nudged him in the ribs. Getting the message, he quieted down and took a serious countenance. The better part of him didn't want to anger his Admiral. The base commander coughed to clear his throat and turned everyone's attention toward the display board behind him.

"We have detected a significant ZAFT force en route to this location. Intel provides us with the statistical data of several Nazca and a select few Laurasia Class vessels supported by their contingent of Mobile Suits."

The chart of the surrounding space of Endymion enlarged to reveal the moon and its northern hemisphere. The estimated spread of the force made several members of the gathered officers lift an eyebrow.

"That force is just barely a full fleet. Do these people really take us that lightly?"

The map froze and shifted to the southern sector of the planet's moon. Another fleet approached from that area at about the same estimated speed. That image moved aside to show a third, significantly larger force incoming from the far west of the base. Each of the officers gave room for pause with the advent of this third cluster of ZAFT vessels.

"A three sided front? We only have the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Fleets here."

The woman sitting beside Wallachia cleared her throat and glared daggers at the frustrated officer across from her. Her eyes bore into him for a moment before he regained his wits and pointed at her accusingly.

"You don't have a fleet as far as I'm concerned. Why would a space monster like you be here unless it's to kill us?"

Marisa Wallachia Sokolov Tepes stood from her chair utterly infuriated. Before she could spout off anything peculiarly vile, a hand rested on her shoulder to calm her nerves. Looking up and over her shoulder, Wing Commander Alexsander Wallachia Tepes stood to his full height with steady eyes.

"That sounds like a Blue Cosmos member speaking up. You do remember the Stalingrad Butchery do you not?"

Everyone in the room tensed at the mentioning of the violent spectacle that was the failed Blue Cosmos attack in Russia nine years ago.

"Do not test my good graces. I have nothing against Coordinators in general and I will not tolerate such degradation of their people, much less my wife. If you would excuse us."

Extending his hand to the Admiral, she accepted his offered arm and they exited the tense room. As the door shut behind them, Marisa sighed heavily. She was a First Generation Coordinator of the Russian Sokolov line. Her parents lived on Earth, and thus, she stayed with them and her elder brother. Alexsander was a Natural, but he was her best friend ever since that cold November day.

The truth was, they hadn't been romantically involved with each other at that time. The Stalingrad Butchery had thrown them together that tragic day. She had lost her brother and he had lost his fiancé at the time. The bloodbath slaughter that followed had scarred them both deeply and forged a cold steel resolve to find and put an end to Blue Cosmos. The two of them entered the officer's academy for training and to begin gathering power to carry out their plans. Now they possessed that power . . . at least in theory.

The Bloody Valentine Tragedy would derail half of the carefully laid plans and set them back two years. Now, they were nearly celebrities given their marital status and personal backgrounds. ZAFT knew the couple and their fleet as the Indestructible Legion due to their constant resurfacing after every significant battle, including Yachin Due, Yggdrasil, and the Grimaldi Front. Alex had garnered a personal fame as an Armor pilot over the course of the many battles they had fought in.

The Immortal. Many ZAFT and EA alike were beginning to believe the moniker to be true. He had faced every ace ZAFT had deployed and returned to the fleet alive. Granted the same thing couldn't be said of his Armors, but they were replaceable unlike his person.

Marisa turned and graced her husband with a smile.

"Thank you Alex, but remember that we're military officers at the moment."

His stolid gaze made her frown.

"Alex?"

"After this battle we will no longer officially be an Earth Alliance fleet." Holding up a hand in order to forestall her question, he pressed onward. "I had the Sanders twins do some snooping around the base over the past few days and they uncovered a Cyclops underground."

The brunette woman covered her mouth with a hand in horror. Looking down at her feet, she shivered at the revelation of the MOD under their very feet. She also knew what this meant for the rest of the forces here at the base.

"Alex, what do we do then? There aren't really many places to go to when this fight is over with."

The raven black haired pilot gave her a puzzled look and cocked his head to the side.

"Didn't you get Halberton's message? He relayed it to us this morning via tight beam."

The woman sheepishly took out her palm computer and opened her classified message folder. The inbox noted a single new message. The chuckle that escaped Alex's lips didn't help her embarrassment any. Turning, she swatted him hard on the shoulder before reading over the text within. Chocolate brown eyes scanned the contents and grew wide as she reached the meat of the mail Halberton sent their way.

"Heliopolis? Are they serious?" The nod she received made her swallow. "They're trying to develop their own Mobile Suits at last. I can't see this ending very well for anyone involved."

"I've sent Jessica ahead to the colony to do some meddling around with our contacts in Morgenroete. Of course, her family name should help with that as well."

"You do realize that lowers your squadron's strength." This time it was Alex's turn to huff.

"It's a little late to be pointing that out don't you think? The other pilots know about it already and will be flying more conservatively for this, our final battle as members of the EA."

She nodded in acceptance as they proceeded back to their ship.

* * *

Meanwhile on a Laurasia Class with the southern tertiary strike team of ZAFT's attack force, Shiho Hahnenfuss was floating in her quarters with a crimson twined sword in hand. The blade was elegantly crafted and laser engraved with its name upon the side of the blade.

"Boss, I'm sorry, but I couldn't stay away from this battle. I may not be able to directly support you and the other Demons on the front lines, but I'll do what I can from here."

The ZAFT redcoat sheathed her sword in its matching sheath before looking to a photo of herself in the midst of the infamous Grimaldi Falcon and his Gray Demons. It had been awhile since she'd left the group proper, but she'd always be one of them if the katana forged by Tom Delaney was any indication. Picking up the framed picture, she gasped when the protective covering suddenly cracked, leaving fissures over several of its members.

"Matt Russo, Alicia Sharpe . . . Commander DiFalco . . . what could this mean?"

The ZGMF-X project test pilot didn't have any time to ponder over the ominous omen as the announcement for battle preparation sounded over the PA system. Heading out of the room, she launched herself in the direction of the hangar bay. Swiftly suiting up in the locker room, she darted out to her cobalt blue CGUE. The technician at the cockpit hatch gave a thumb up for her to board. Giving him a quick, salute, she eased herself into the pilot's seat and began to run through her start up sequences.

"Everything seems in order, now it's time to see what those Naturals have in store this time. Nothing much I'll wager."

'_Then again though, that time we fought the Indestructible Fleet and the Immortal with his Wolf Squadron, we got off lucky with just major damages. Damn Victor's stunt. Though I can't complain since he got killed by the Boss.'_

"Where would that group of soldiers be now?"

* * *

The hangar of the Wallachian fleet was rampant with activity. Men and women rushed about in a flurry of motions as they finished loading supplies and began to board their respective ships. A man only slightly older than Alex rushed over and saluted the ace. Acknowledging his presence with a return salute, Alex bade him speak his mind.

"What are we to do about the Cyclops system sir?"

"You needn't get so worked up Major Sanders. This too will pass and we will press onward. Be more concerned about our adversaries. The Cyclops will give itself away as it begins to charge its power. We will be far out of its range by then."

Another pilot met them just inside the entry bulkhead with a concerned look on her face. Her auburn hair floated slightly as the artificial gravity dissipated for the ships to weigh anchor. Marisa smiled inwardly, the fleet operated soundly even without the personal order from her to deploy.

"How can you be certain we'll be clear of the blast range?"

Marisa pushed off of her husband and smiled sardonically. Seeing her commander's other half so smug, she raised her hands in defeat. Whenever the Admiral got that look on her face, it was best to just go with whatever crazy scheme she concocted.

"Forget I asked." Alex allowed himself a mirthful laugh before smiling wistfully and making his way to the hangars with two of his squad mates in tow.

"Rachelle, do you really believe Marisa would let us get caught in such a trap? We will be handling either the northern or southern battle line. That reminds me, has there been any additional news from Halberton?"

Rachelle Di shook her head negatively to both counts. If Marisa could lead the fleet through Yachin Due, Yggdrasil, and the chaos of the Grimaldi Front, then she could handle this one as well. Alex's skills were also top class as both a pilot and a leading officer. Not just by word, but by example, Alex inspired many of the crew members and other pilots on the other ships. His personal squadron consisted of Evan and Allen Sanders, Jessica, who was off on another assignment at Heliopolis, and herself. The other two members of the squad had died in the line of duty against ZAFT - more specifically the by the hands of the Gray Demons.

As well as she could remember, that battle had been strange from the get go. The two squadrons would never have exchanged fire if it hadn't been for one of the Grimaldi Falcon's men recklessly charging their line of defense. Likewise, the hot head of their own squad had charged to meet the challenge head on. From then on out, the rest of the battle went to hell. The five minute furball that resulted from those two charging each other had earned the title, "The Dogfight from Hell."

Alex had lost Travis Page, the 'hot head' that had answered the challenge of the Demon and rushed out of formation. The other who had rushed after him to bring him back and was the first of the two to die was Lingshen Tao Lan. The Demons had gotten away with all their members, though they all certainly returned to their ship battered and bruised. Their mobile suits came away from the scrap just as bad if not a bit worse than their Zeroes had. The units were missing legs, arms, heads, some were missing multiple appendages. Alex had reported seeing one of the Demons' faces from the gash he left in the cockpit hatch. The spectacle had sent chills down both sides that witnessed the clash of squadrons.

The truly frightening moment during the fighting was the exchange of fire between the Falcon and the Immortal. The two men fought like supernatural beings. Mobile suit and armor both lost parts simply from the sheer stress on their frames from the maneuvers both pilots pulled off while trying to shoot the other down.

It had taken both the Grimaldi Falcon and the Immortal calling a simultaneous truce in the fighting before the pointless violence claimed a Demon or another Wolf. Lingshen had been vaporized without any time to scream when she'd dived between Travis and the Demon who'd lined up the fatal shot on him. Travis had died shortly afterward when he charged the pilot who'd killed Lan, only to be skewered in the back by the renegade Demon who provoked the whole incident. When Travis died, Alex had called for defensive formations considering they'd lost the two pilots they had dived in to save. After seeing two of the slate gray machines subdue Tempest, a single gray CGUE, the Falcon himself placed himself before Alex with the proposal to withdraw at the same time. Alex had been grateful for the objective mindset of the ZAFT ace and held a great deal of respect for the man even now.

It wasn't too terribly long afterward that news came to them that the Gray Demon Victor Tempest had died after a falling out with the Falcon that culminated in a death match with live blades. They all swiftly deduced that Victor had been the one to start that entire pointless shootout. The exact circumstances were unknown, but Alex didn't give it too much thought. After the battle he had delved deep into the Moebius Zero blueprints, working for days bent on improving the design.

Ultimately what happened as the result of his tireless research was a more streamlined and deadly machine. The mobile armor was slim; the gun barrels were far more aerodynamic despite their lower munitions supply. This made them harder to target than their orange barrel counterparts. Each of their armors now totted twin linear guns instead of one cannon and the thrusters covering the entirety of the ship had gone through a massive overhaul. Alex's personal machine had been reinforced after the engineer's had taken a good look at the Zero that had nearly broken apart on its own under his flying.

Rachelle looked at Alex as they finally entered the hangar.

"Commander, are you taking the field today?"

The man nodded as he approached his personal machine. It appeared no different from their modified units, but the inside was utilizing an experimental system in the cockpit that would drastically improve a pilot's survivability if used properly.

"I would advise you and the Sanders twins to suit up and standby. We could meet the enemy at any given time."

As they left to do so, he placed a hand on the side of the cockpit hatch. Alex sighed heavily before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"Today will see another pointless slaughter of unsuspecting souls. When will our time come to announce the curtain call on this blood soaked opera?"

* * *

Up on the bridge Marisa was making conversation with her crew over the next few moves they would make before meeting the ZAFT forces once again. Her helmsman Ritcher Occan knew the ship better than the average bridge crewman. The man's father was the chief engineer of the flagship and it was the envy of nearly all ship captains in the EA. The RAM-FAS – Romanian Armor Masters Flag Assault Ship – Stiletto was a sleek ship with a total length just under four hundred meters. The weapons that decorated the hull were a different caliber from that of typical ship borne weaponry. Isabella Wilder in CIC knew that all too well.

"Isabella, set the weapons to peripheral tracking and keep the main gun offline unless I say so."

"Ma'am." She didn't have to be told twice. The main gun was unstable as it was. Risking firing it was something that Marisa was hesitant about. The test theories were sound, but Marisa insisted on waiting until certain technological advances were made first.

Ritcher guided the Stiletto out of her docking bay as the other ships of the fleet formed up around her in a wide spread rhombus formation. Setting their course due south, members of the communications lines were verifying that all vessels were accounted for. Marisa opened a broad band channel within the cluster of the fleet's ships.

"Attention all vessels of the Romanian First Space Fleet, this is Admiral Marisa Wallachia. It has been an honor to serve alongside such fine men and women in this struggle. I ask you all to hold your heads high in this final battle as members of the Earth Alliance. Upon the conclusion of this engagement, the Stiletto will change vectors to Heliopolis as a part of the next phase of our true mission. All other ships will proceed to back to the homeland and prepare for our return with the tools needed to take the next steps against the true enemies of mankind. I believe it goes without saying to play this battle conservatively. Do not make foolish risks in this battle of survival. We cannot afford major losses."

Confirmations poured in from all directions as vessels activated weapon platforms and readied mobile armor launch catapults. The radar officer glanced over her shoulder at Marisa.

"Admiral, first ZAFT vessels are appearing on scopes now. Four Nazca's and two Laurasias."

"Well Elenore, have they launched mobile suits yet?"

Elenore Baker shook her head lightly. Taking another look at her screens and signals, she swallowed the words she was about to say.

"They're hiding in under their parent ship signatures. Someone's a cunning devil to employ that tactic."

"Relay the order to the entire fleet to launch armors and get Alex on the line."

* * *

Down below, Alex was finishing suiting up when the bridge hailed him. Answering the device, he kept his voice even.

"Wallachia here." Isabella appeared on the screen with a light bow to his position. Nodding in quick acknowledgment, Alexsander reached for his helmet. "Yes Isabella, what's the situation out there?"

The brunette spoke in professional tones.

"Sir, the Admiral's giving the order to deploy."

"So it begins again." A confused look crossed the woman's facial features as he silently confirmed Marisa's orders. The screen cut off as he made his way across the hanger from the locker room. "We're go for launch, get moving soldiers!"

Left and right, crew members hustled to get armors into launch positions. The Sanders twins and Rachelle came up to him and saluted as a single entity. Waving them to an at ease status he looked to their Moebius Zeroes.

"There will be no deviations from the standard procedures. Stay formed up on me and keep an eye on each other. Wolf Pack Strategy Two."

They all nodded and shook hands before departed for their individual machines.

* * *

The stars appeared ominous to her as she sat in her CGUE just outside the Laurasia class vessel to her starboard side. The time spent just before the lead started flying was always tense. Giving her systems one last check, she cycled through her options.

"The machine gun with two spare magazines, along with the shield vulcan cannon and the heavy sword. The battery's fully charged and there aren't any mechanical issues . . . at least there better not be. I guess I'm good to go."

On board the Laurasia, the captain of the ship was getting a radar report from his crewmen.

"Sir, we're getting readings of a single fleet with a very large central ship in the core of the formations. They're launching mobile armors sir."

"Feh, armors, pathetic. Which fleet is that?"

The screen enlarged to show the fleet before them. Most of the ships didn't affect the crew until the central ship came into clear view.

"That's, that's the Indestructible Fleet."

Several swallows went around the bridge of the ship and its captain was certain that the rest of the men and women under his command on the other ships were doing the same.

"Sir, we're being hailed."

The captain nodded to reveal a voice-only communication broadcast.

"This is Admiral Marisa Wallachia Sokolov Tepes of the Romanian First Royal Fleet on board the Stiletto. Is this the commander of the ZAFT tertiary strike force?"

"I am Captain Francis Altrouge."

A slight, flitting laughter took the ZAFT soldiers off guard. It was light and ethereal, taunting and lilting.

"Well then Sir Francis, would I be inappropriate in asking that both our forces stand down and chat for a bit over tea?"

The crew glanced back and forth at each other incredulously. Francis shook his head quietly in disbelief. He'd heard tales of the Tepes lineage, but never thought much of it. Now he wished that he had paid slightly more attention to his classes.

"My apologies, but I think as members of military forces we know that would be heavily looked down upon."

"Oh?" the voice was more amused than offended. "This is quite a shame. At least you've some respect to humor a lady's request. Alex, did you get all of that?"

The face that suddenly appeared on screen appeared just as humored as his female counterpart sounded.

"Sir Francis, you have my respect for your display of manners before my wife. Though, as she said, this is unfortunate. I much rather have preferred talking over tea. No matter. Knowing hostilities will not end with more mere words, en garde!"

The sudden flurry of activity from the Romanian fleet caused temporary disarray among the ZAFT ranks as volleys of starship fire lanced through space. Francis swiftly recovered and ordered his CIC to return fire. Green spears of positron cannon fire spewed forth in the direction of the infamous EA fleet.

All over the surrounding vacuum, mobile suits closed on mobile armors. Many of the new greencoat pilots hesitated seeing the Wallachian fleet's armors. Multiple units were heavily, yet universally modified. GINNs and CGUEs shot toward fleet vessels as Moebius pilots defended their home ships with vicious tenacity. One Agammemnon carrier lucked out, lancing a Nazca's guns, rendering it incapable of fighting any longer.

In return, one GINN made its way within range and tore into the ship's port side launcher. The 76 mm slugs from its machine gun ripped through the machinery. Two Moebius charged the suit only to be blown into dust by the ZAFT pilot's wingman. No more than a second passed before his ally was riddled with shots from another Moebius that began a deadly game of tag with the surviving GINN.

The defense turrets of the Stiletto blazed with their auto-tracking, targeting missiles and mobile suits alike. The capital ship's 70mm gatling interceptors could fire off over a thousand rounds per minute. In the void of space they looked like streams of molten orange. The secondary cannons on the ship, designed to resemble twentieth century battleship main guns, fired their deadly volleys into the ZAFT fleet. The weapons were the latest in the Romanian technology, with their barrels being eighteen inches and instead of solid munitions, they fired energy beams. A single volley wrecked a Nazca and a pair of mobile suits unlucky enough to get caught up in the mix.

* * *

Allen Sanders whistled as the Midnight Wolves squadron zipped past another group of mobile suits, leaving fragmented remains as the four units unleashed rains of gunfire from their gun barrels. The dark violet machines made them harder to visually acquire unless they were firing full force. Sure, the bright orange paint schemes of their fellow Zero squadrons made it easier for allies to see them, but it also made them bright targets for the pilots of the Plants.

"Boy, the Admiral's just letting them have at it isn't she?"

"They're lucky she doesn't risk firing the main gun on the ship."

His twin brother Evan sent his gun barrels spiraling out as he answered his sibling. The streamlined pods sped out to meet a CGUE pilot who'd become preoccupied with another armor in their fleet. Surrounding the suit, he opened fire, peppering the unfortunate coordinator with eight barrels of hot lead. The volley shredded the gun, shield, arms, and head of the suit. To add insult to injury, he rammed the suit with one of his wired units before having it return to his ship. The useless mobile suit tumbled back in the direction of the ZAFT fleet.

"I feel sorry for that pilot, I bet he's struggling not to lose his lunch in there."

Rachelle skewered a GINN with a positron cannon that was lining up a shot on the Stiletto with her linear guns, the first of the tandem rounds took the energy pack of the weapon, the second made direct contact with the power supply of the unit. Needless to say, the resulting explosions were more than expected.

"That's enough you three. Concentrate on the task at hand. One of those Laurasia class ships is getting too close for comfort, we're making an assault run, form up on me and don't let your guard down."

The members of the Wolves responded with the universal pilot's double click as they vectored in on Alex's position. Tracers from mobile suit guns and bright green fire from capital ship guns honed in on the four Zeroes as they sped through space. Sixteen gun barrels spread out among their four masters. Slugs shot from their barrels in rapid succession as they acquired targets and opened fire. Each of the Wolves made their pod movements erratic as possible to keep shots from taking out their advantageous weaponry.

All of the fire from thirty two barrels plus the combined fire of eight linear guns turned four armors into a charging spectacle of bloodthirsty hunters homing in on prey that wanted nothing of the sort. GINNs and CGUEs desperately evaded or brought up shields only to have the onslaught of lead rip through machinery. Some pilots lucked out, floating in space with no means of continuing the fight. Others who weren't so fortunate were caught in bright orange-red fireballs as their suits exploded.

* * *

On board the Laurasia, Captain Altrouge grit his teeth at the incoming cluster of Moebius Zeroes. He never imagined the armors of the EA could become so dangerous. Then again, he'd only heard stories of the squadron that could match Kenneth DiFalco's Gray Demons in skill. Seeing them first hand even with men down, was downright frightening. He could only define their combat style as an overrun style.

"His pilots take on single targets as a coordinated group and progress to the next nearest target in the area. Those wired gun barrels don't help the poor victim in their sights either."

The ship was firing on all cylinders trying to knock the Immortal and his Wolves out of the fight, but the guns were just too large and slow compared to the speed and skill that the Romanian soldiers were showing. As the displays only continued to show the Zeroes incoming, Francis Altrouge could only come to a single bleak conclusion.

"We're doomed."

* * *

As the units poured into firing range, a burst of machine gun and vulcan fire scattered the Wolves with several bright balls of fire. Alex took stock of the situation they suddenly found themselves in. Allen and his brother had already paired off with each other and Rachelle was sticking to him like glue. Glancing over at her unit, he was slightly surprised to see her without a pair of her gun barrels.

"Rachelle, report damages."

"Just the gun barrels, but wow, that pilot tagged me and Allen. He's got three missing himself."

The heir of the Tepes line lifted an eyebrow at that information. Glancing over to where the twins fought off a trio of suits that grew more confidant with two of his wolves down gun barrels, he could see Allen having to compensate for his losses to the best of his abilities. Evan was giving his brother all the support he could, but he was still only one person.

"Allen, can you stick around or not?"

It took a moment for him to respond. The pilot swerved to evade a positron shot from a GINN before sending it packing with his remaining gun barrel. Evan shot the two other units going for the kill at close range with a volley from his linear guns on one suit and the wired units on it partner. When Allen did respond, it was scratchy and filled with static. It was plainly obvious that he'd taken the surprise attack much worse than Rachelle.

"I got off much worse than Rachelle sir. That burst of gunfire . . . argh!"

The machine gun and vulcan cannon fire burst into the pair, shredding the last gun barrel off of Allen's machine and putting a hole in one of his main thrusters. Evan jinked and spun, but lost a linear gun and gun barrel. Rachelle and Alex supposed that was better than if he hadn't. The hungry onslaught would've torn through his cockpit if he hadn't have gone evasive. Alex and Rachelle's eyes darted around the space surrounding the twins and spotted the perpetrator at the same instant. The two pilots frowned, it was the first time either of them had seen that coloration on a suit.

"A blue CGUE? Must be a redcoat. Rachelle, get the twins out of this area and back to the Stiletto. I'll hold this one off."

Rachelle responded with a double click affirmation before jetting off to help the siblings as Alex zoned in on the ZAFT unit. Spreading out his gun barrels so a single burst of fire wouldn't knock out more than one, he fired in a criss-cross spread that would skewer from multiple directions. Shooting his linear guns into the mix, most pilots would have turned into space dust. To his surprise, the mobile suit pilot backpedaled, avoiding the first burst while turning to face him. The two following strings of fire were sidestepped as the shield vulcan was brought to bear to catch the fourth gun barrel's fire.

Alex couldn't help but whistle lightly when the pilot used the force of the bullet impact on the shield to back flip underneath the linear gun shots and return fire with a dual burst of the machine gun and vulcan cannon in opposing directions in an attempt to skewer his gun barrels like it did his squadron's.

'_I've seen that maneuver before . . . granted this pilot's not quite as good as he was, but that makes me wonder.'_

Sliding his independent units out of the way, he smirked and licked his lips. Taking quick stock of the status of his squad mates, he nodded to himself as they made their way out of the combat zone to the Stiletto.

"Good, they should be fine now that they're back inside the Stiletto's defense sphere." Switching his frequency to an open channel, he hailed the pilot who'd oddly stopped firing at him. The two faced off in a frozen staring contest. "I would know your name. You're a higher class of pilot even among ZAFT's aces."

Inside her cockpit, Shiho grit her teeth but couldn't help but feel a strange urge to relish this upcoming confrontation. She did feel slightly bad at using a fair amount of ECM to get the drop on the other three wolves, but she was surprised and impressed with their reaction times. She'd made it through Alex's barrage of fire because she'd watched DiFalco's video real of their battle with the Wolves several times over and noticed a slight pattern in the way he fought, though after Kenneth had gone into his Berserker state, all of that went out the window.

"You may not know me Alexsander Wallachia, but you've faced me before when our squadrons went at it. You fought the Boss to the point of breaking your own machines. No offense, but I shot down one of yours during that fight."

Alex gripped his controls slightly at that reminder. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath remembering that fight. He thought he'd only have to worry about the project success of Hibiki, Kira Yamato, but facing the Falcon had shocked him to the core and put him on edge. Kira was a neutral civilian with nothing to do with the war, DiFalco was considered ZAFT's ultimate ace and leader of the most feared mobile suit squadron among their numbers. Alex knew what he was facing now.

"You're a Gray Demon. How quaint, I'm not about to get riled up over the loss of Lingshen or Travis – I am a soldier as much as you are, and this is war. I will admit that this is rather fitting though. You've been watching reels of my battle with your commander, the Grimaldi Falcon. Still, it would be rude for you to know me and leave me without knowing you."

Shiho knew what he was getting at and had to hand it to him, he sounded like a sword buff just like the Boss. Exchanging names before fighting was an old tradition in the world of lethal duels. To die not knowing who killed you in single combat was a personal affront.

"Shiho, Shiho Hahnenfuss. Gray Demon and ZGMF-X Project test pilot."

In his cockpit, Alex twitched.

'_Hahnenfuss? Where have I . . .' _He thought on that for half a second before slumping in his seat and sighing. _'Oh yes, now I remember. This will not do at all. I wonder what Mother and Father would say when I get this information to them? I already know what Marisa would do. Not that I can exactly avoid this confrontation.'_

"Very well Miss Hahnenfuss. Give it your best."

"You as well. Anything else would be an insult."

The two charged each other with weapons blazing, though inside his machine, Alex frowned in dissatisfaction. Keying a private line, he called the bridge of the Stiletto.

* * *

The flagship of the Royal Fleet was giving ZAFT everything but the proverbial 'kitchen sink', with said appliance being the main gun of the ship. Marisa had fallen into her usual style of commanding her forces, standing in front of her Captain's Seat instead of sitting in it while brandishing her ceremonial sword about as she barked orders.

Isabella in CIC made a double take at her console before turning in her chair to look at Marisa.

"Admiral, Wolf squadron with the exception of the Wing Commander are requesting emergency landing clearance. They're all heavily damaged."

The bridge crew looked in her general direction is shock. Everyone swallowed while they waited for her next words. The brunette woman looked at Isabella out of the corner of her eye.

"Specifics?" Her icy cold tone made the officer swallow before going into details.

"Rachelle is missing two of her gun barrels. Evan Sanders lost one of his own and has taken damage to the main fuselage and is slowly losing pressure inside; in addition he's lost a linear gun. Allen . . . Allen has lost all gun barrels, his main thruster, and half his life support systems."

Before anyone could say anything a screen opened up to reveal Alexsander. His facial expression was not pleasant.

"Marisa, it's time to pull out of this battle."

"What happened to your pilots Alex?!"

The man began to answer when he grunted as he spun in a high G maneuver that pinned him to the seat. He gave her a look before firing his linear guns and evading a burst of machine gun fire.

"I'll explain later, this pilot's a bit too skilled to divide my attention for much longer. Just give the order and then let me know when you're in position."

The communication line closed leaving Marisa to chew a thumbnail. Whatever Alex was facing, he was doing it alone and he was in to his neck. Bringing the sword up and slashing down in a swift stroke, she put on a stern, frustrated face.

"Isabella, get the order to the fleet and all her crews to initiate Operation Rapture. Mr. Occan, place us on course to Heliopolis immediately." The two members of her crew hurried to carry out her orders. Marisa then turned to the combat camera and battlefield analyst of the crew, Nicholas Lancaster."

"Lancaster, connect with Commander Alex's cameras. I want to know exactly what the heck he's doing."

Nicholas scanned his controls and began working furiously to create a link with the Immortal's combat cams. When the syncronization rate reached optimal levels, he transferred it to the secondary screens. The images that began playing in real time made Marisa grit her teeth.

"A single CGUE?!"

* * *

Both Alex and Shiho weaved in and out of each other's fire, trying to land a solid hit to no avail. Any mobile suits that tried to help the ZAFT redcoat were promptly turned to scrap by Alex's faithful gun barrel guardians. The thruster trails of the two combatants flowed throughout the ZAFT fleet, creating pandemonium as Shiho chased him.

Alex lanced the closest Nazca in the bridge with a pair of double linear gun shots before wasting three GINNs seeking revenge. Shiho couldn't believe his skill. All throughout his assault, he was always a step ahead of her, dodging shots by fractions. The dark colored machine was a specter on the battlefield and she was almost out of ammo in both her firearms.

"Damn, what is with him? At first I was keeping up with him and keeping the pressure on. Now its like he's a transcended being."

Her assumption wasn't terribly off the marker. Inside his cockpit, Alex was pouring with sweat. His dark crimson eyes nearly translucent as his consciousness was as clear as glass. The Seed factor inside him had manifested after Hahnenfuss had nearly killed him with the sudden arrival of additional forces trying to aid her. The combination of three GINNs and two additional CGUEs had forced his hand. Alex grit his teeth and pushed the machine into a hard reverse stop while about-facing his barrels behind him and firing at Shiho.

"This is my only way to fight this entrenched in enemy lines. It's not the proper way to dance with a lady, but this is no ordinary waltz."

Firing a rocket anchor, he latched onto the wasted Nazca's turret and ducked his Zero behind it. Taking a deep breath to regain his bearings and loosen his nerves, Alex set about recalling his units. Shiho remained static on the other side several meters away doing the same recollecting he was.

"That's a trap and I'm not stupid enough to try going around that cover he's using from any direction."

A floating container just beside the slagged turret caught her eye and she couldn't help but grin a bit. Zeroing her aim on the object, she pulled the trigger only to find that the machine gun was out of bullets.

"Oh, good grief. It figures he has the luck of the devil. At least the vulcan still has ammo."

Opening up with a short burst, the slugs rammed into the rectangular object. The resulting explosion made her squint her eyes. As the debris and smoke scattered, she saw fragments of gun barrels. Deep down inside, she knew that something was very, very wrong.

"Amazing, you got him!"

A trio of suits formed up around her as they congratulated her achievement. Shiho ignored their chatter and focused closer on the two gun barrels.

_'Something's just not right. He's too skilled and experienced to let something like that take him out.'_

A sudden chill ran up her spine and she pushed her machine up above the trio as she turned around.

"You idiots! He's behind us!"

The three men didn't know what hit them as two barrels popped out of cover from an opposing turret and spat lead death. Three balls of fire and suit parts rewarded the units and Shiho frowned.

"Where is he? Wait, the wires . . ." Her eyes traced faint shimmers of light from the two barrels and their glimmers climbed upward. Shooting her attention and her vulcan upward, she drew the heavy sword. "Above!"

The two opened fire at the same instant as Alex came down from above her position out of the sunlight. Her fire grazed his machine as he yelled. Opening up with his gun barrels, the two remaining units claimed her shield vulcan. Shiho swung with the sword as he passed, shaving off a foot of the starboard stabilizers. Spinning on her heel, she slashed through one of the remaining gunpods that got too close. Alex made a bee line to the Stiletto in the distance.

"Retreating? Not on my watch . . . argh!" She winced as she was slung around in her harness. Alex continued to zoom away.

"Sorry Hahnenfuss, I'd rather not have used such a tactic, but now is not the time to pursue me or my fleet. Get your forces out of here. Maybe next time."

Shiho coughed at the smoke in her cockpit. He had rammed his last gun barrel into her and destroyed it with a shot from his linear guns. The explosion wasn't much, but it did do enough damage to make her have second thoughts about pursuit. After the smoke cleared off a bit, she noticed the sudden energy spike at the EA base. Trying her communication equipment, she grunted in annoyance as none of the devices worked.

"The comm's fried. Don't tell me that's the weapon we'd been hearing rumors about." Her mind flashed back to the cracked picture of the Gray Demons and her jaw slackened. "No . . . Russo, Sharpe, guys!"

A huge spherical blast engulfed the base, greedily consuming both ZAFT and EA alike. The Indestructible Fleet was splitting apart as they retreated.

"What are they doing? Where is that flagship going without its fleet?" Her mind wandered back to Alex's warning. "He knew about that and they were keeping us away. What's his plan?"

* * *

In his damaged Zero, Alex made his way back to the Stiletto with grim expression on his face. He silently hoped Mu La Flaga got out of the conflagration in time. He also had to wonder about Shiho Hahnenfuss's appearance on her own.

_'Did something happen to make her pull out of the Gray Demons? I certainly hope that group wasn't here, but somehow, I doubt it. It goes against the grain, but I'd be pleased if they made it out as well.'_

It took him a second to realize he was being hailed by the ship. Acknowledging the transmission, he winced when Marisa yelled over the line.

"Alex! You crazy idiot! Fighting in the middle of the enemy alone?"

Shucking his helmet as he docked in the hangar, he sighed heavily.

"Marisa, I encountered one of the Grimaldi Falcon's Demons out there. A certain, Shiho Hahnenfuss . . . ring any bells?"

Silence met his inquiry before the line abruptly closed. Taking that as his cue, he popped the hatch and disembarked from the Zero. Down below, the remaining members of the Midnight Wolves formed up around him. Evan tossed a towel his way. Grabbing it out of the air, he wiped the sweat and grim from his face and neck.

"That was one heck of an engagement Commander, who was that?"

"A Gray Demon. Though now that I know the pilot's name, taking her down is out of the question. I'll explain some other time. For now, we've got bigger things to worry about. Has any word come from Jessica?"

Allen nodded and handed him a data pad and portable computer. Activating the device, Alex opened up the documents and swallowed. The three pilots huddled around him and looked at the screen. Rachelle paled a bit.

"That can't be. Not just Mobile Suits, but an assault ship? Commander, what are we going to do about this?"

An evil smile crossed his features, making his followers flinch and trade glances.

Up in the bridge, Marisa clutched her chair's armrests in apprehension.

"Hahnenfuss, I'd never thought about hearing that name on the battlefield, much less as a ZAFT ace. We'll need to be more cautious as ever now. Ritcher, ETA on docking with Morgenroete's Heliopolis branch."

"ETA six days and eight hours. Orders Admiral?"

She sighed and slumped down in her seat.

"All hands are to stand down and get some rest. I don't believe ZAFT is crazy enough to engage anyone after this battle. Also, notify all hands that we are converting to Royal Guard Regulations. We are no longer EA."

The crew stood from their posts and faced her as a single unit. Placing their left arms across their chests and bowing slightly, they answered her in unison.

"As you command Milady." Marisa rolled her eyes.

"That's going to get some taking used to."

The group chuckled at her reaction to her title as the wife of Romania's heir. As they returned to their duties, she gazed out into the star speckled space before them. Now their real mission would begin. Confrontations would occur that they'd never imagine, but for now, all she wanted was to sleep.

* * *

**Well, there's the Battle of Endymion. Keep reading and you just might see what happened to a certain set of Solid Shark's characters during the battle. Let me know how this is dear readers, and you'll be seeing more of minor characters like Shiho and others.**

**Ciao for now!**

**Reis Nailo  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Gundam Seed: Wolves of War**

**Disclaimer: GS is not mine and Kenneth DiFalco and the Gray Demons are used in correspondence with Solid Shark. He and I discussed the events of Ken's goodwill tour to Africa leading up to the fight he had with Kisaka and this is what I came up with.**

**Chapter 1: Calm Before the Storm**

Commander Kenneth DiFalco shifted uncomfortably in his seat. True he was on a goodwill tour, but he hated the confines of gravity. A futile attempt to stretch prompted two of the other red coats in the vehicle to laugh at him. Arching a fine eyebrow at them, he smirked before grinning lightly.

"What's so funny to you?" A blonde haired woman with light green eyes and a semi-tan complexion cocked her head to the side as she grinned at him.

"Simple Falcon. You always get like this whenever we've come to Earth's surface. You fidget and get this look on your face like if you don't get back into the sky or space the ground's going to eat you." She crossed her eyes at him and stuck out her tongue a bit as she spun her index fingers around her head to poke fun at him. The Grimaldi Falcon shrugged and slumped in his seat, good naturedly taking the jibe.

"You're one to talk Laura, given your oddity for claustrophobia despite our cockpits in Mobile Suits. And why are you laughing Leanne?"

The green haired cousin of the Amalfi family stifled her laughter and smiled.

"For the same reasons as Elsman is. You should see yourself all worked up like that. The tabloids back home would have a hay day with you if the paparazzi could get a photo of you like this."

The Falcon blanched slightly as his eyes widened a fraction as he turned his head like an owl to half glare at his subordinate. He could feel his heart drop to his gut. He never asked for fame and glory. All he did was to protect what he believed was right and to keep the PLANTS safe from whatever threat loomed on the horizon. The actions he'd taken though had made him more than a bit popular along with his squadron. It was one of the only things he found irksome with his position. The mass media was one of the biggest reasons he hardly ever left bases nowadays.

"You wouldn't?"

Both girls looked at each other before looking back at their commander and letting dark grins pass their features. As Laura began to reach for her camera phone, a new voice from elsewhere in the transport fairly boomed like a loudspeaker.

"Don't do it Laura. If you're lucky, you'll just lose the phone." Laura glanced over at Lance "Sparky" Cooper who was riding shotgun before turning back to Falcon to see his thumb push out Griever a quarter inch from its sheath.

"Oh come on Sparky, this isn't like Remmick's act of cowardice." Dixon Remmick, a former teammate of hers and Falcon's whose act of cowardice in face of the enemy had been answered with Kenneth shooting and killing him during the battle which could have ended their lives short. Tom Delaney glanced over the periodical he was browsing with a smug expression.

"True, but being reckless and greedy to the extreme is just as bad. Remember Tempest?"

The transport got quiet again at that. The group was tousled by a bump in the road before the strawberry red head in the group clapped her hands once and gave everyone a gentle smile.

"O-okay, enough about all the doom and gloom from our history, this is the first time we've left base without uniforms. Shouldn't we be enjoying ourselves a bit more? Laura, quit teasing the Boss. Unless you're trying to get him to do something to you later . . . ?" Letting the suggestive hint hang poignantly in the air made the blonde blush and admire the scenery outside. The group chuckled at her rebuff. Turning to face Falcon, she gave him a small frown. "Boss, please lighten up just a little bit? We all know you're uncomfortable, but do you really have to drag us all down with it? Speaking of which, how's your eye doing?"

Kenneth DiFalco had put away Griever and looked into his fellow pilot's light lavender eyes. Sighing, he slumped deeper into his seat and nodded tiredly.

"Yes, you're right. My apologies Alicia. I guess it's just the fatigue from teaching the greenhorns at the Academy and then immediately being sent out here of all places the moment we get back together as the team. As for my eye." He tapped the eye patch with his middle and index fingers. "If it weren't for this patch, I'd have the worst migraine in the history books. How I can see the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums is beyond me, but it's painful with all this desert. Thanks for your concern."

The group nodded, though most of them all suspected that it was a recuperatory move seeing as they hadn't seen any real action since Endymion. It was a harsh memory that was too sore to touch on yet – especially around Falcon.

* * *

_**Space Colony Heliopolis**_

* * *

Alex sat on a balcony overlooking the artificial lake in the central park of the colony. The two women who sat at the table behind him shook their heads at his far off look.

"Don't zone out too much Alex." The voice made him blink and turn to face his wife. Marisa's light brown hair swayed in the breeze. Across from her, a woman with long jet black hair held in a long pony tail with deep wine red eyes lounged in her chair with a Cheshire Cat-like smile on her face. "You might not come back from the realm of dreams."

"I'll keep that in mind Jessica. Thanks again for pulling whatever strings you had to in order to hide the _Stiletto _and her crew throughout the colony. I can't imagine what your siblings would say if they found out what we were doing here."

Jessica dropped her smirk and frowned with a souring expression.

"Honestly, I couldn't care less what they think or do. They're extremists within Orb and that will be the cause for one or both of their falls. My elder siblings have always been too zealous. I just hope that we can complete our plans before the G-Weapons are completed, much less the _Archangel_."

The heirs of Romania nodded in agreement with the Wolf squadron member. Looking down at the road below at teenagers walking and laughing freely, Alex sighed heavily.

"Ignorance is bliss." Marisa and Jessica both looked at each other slightly confused at his words. "There was a time when all of us were that way. In war the first thing to go is one's innocence. For their sakes, I hope we can get this done before anything comes to this area."

Marisa cradled her mug of coffee before getting up from her chair and walking to Alex's side. Propping one elbow on the edge of the railing and canting her head to peer over the side, she saw a group of students that she'd been teaching under her false persona of an engineering professor and the local Technical School. Feeling Alex tense a bit, she noticed his eyes focus intently on one of the boys in the group. Following his eyes, she sighed when she saw what he was so focused on.

"Alex, he's not a trained Coordinator, Kira Yamato isn't a threat to us."

"I know Marisa, but the thought of it still doesn't help me. Think about it, that young man is probably the only other person alive who could challenge the Grimaldi Falcon. Hell, the Grimaldi Falcon caught us off guard the first time we encountered him. Can you imagine what would happen if that boy learns to fight and joins him among our opponents?"

The thought gave Marisa chills and her coffee didn't do anything to help. A hand on her shoulder made her turn to face Jessica who looked at them both with a slight measure of concern.

"You two got awfully quiet. Hm? Is that him? Kira Yamato?"

Both royals nodded and Jessica gave him a good once over and sighed.

"He really doesn't seem like one who would want to fight even if he had too. He seems too timid."

Alex pushed away from the railing as his cell phone began to ring at him.

"True Jessica, but the timid ones fight the fiercest when cornered." Flipping the device open, he held it to his ear. "Alexsander speaking. Oh? I'll be there later today to check on it myself. Thank you Evan."

Jessica lifted a curious eyebrow when Alex smirked after ending his call.

"Is it the new machines?"

"Yes, they're done with the initial phase. Want to give it a shot? You do have the most experience with them thus far."

The woman turned to fully face him a placed her fists on her hips in a challenging stance with a cocky smile. Her eyes gleamed with a mischievous light.

"Is that an order from the Prince of Romania?" Marisa rolled her eyes and batted the slightly taller woman on the back of the head with a rolled up magazine.

"It may not be from him, but I _am _making it one. Those machines may save your lives in the upcoming struggle. Now get to it."

Jessica laughed and bowed slightly to the two individuals before taking her leave. Alex shook his head as she left the balcony and gave Marisa a wry look. His wife folded her arms across her chest and pouted a bit.

"You and your toys. I swear this is like Christmas to you and the rest of your squadron."

Taking his seat at the table once again, Alex picked up his cup of tea and took a drink. Setting the cup back on its saucer, he gave her a long, hard stare before motioning to the chair across from him. Recognizing that gesture from their past tea breaks, Marisa took her chair without further complaining and waiting for him to begin talking.

"It's their nature, and mine as well to a degree. However, we all realize that these machines will diametrically change the way this war is fought. Even more so with the advent of the G-Weapons and the _Archangel_. You weren't always this concerned and uptight. Have I done something to irk you so?"

His concerned expression made her momentarily forget everything else as she realized that he was only focusing on her. Even in the midst of all the chaos and planning, he made time for her alone, and tried to be thoughtful about things whenever they hadn't spent time alone together for some time. It told her that he still held on to his humanity, and she treasured that more than anything else.

"No, it's just that we've not been able to sit down and spend time with each other outside of obligations and duties. I feel like we're floating apart. It's not much, but I do feel like we're not as close as we were back then."

Alex nodded in understanding. He felt very similar in their relationship. It had been a long time since the two of them were alone without military hardware around them. Yet it felt alien to them without it. Reaching across the table to grasp her hand in his, he looked at her inquisitively.

"I agree. So what is it that you want to do today? There's no school today and the issues with the _Stiletto _and the others can wait a day or two. Let's be a little selfish for a bit shall we?"

Letting him take her hand, she smiled and nodded, suddenly feeling a bit more enthusiastic. It wasn't often that Alex lived for only himself, but then again, neither did she. Her heart beat a bit faster in anticipation.

"Selfish? Alright then Alex, shall we spend a night on the town?" Her husband only nodded with an equally eager grin on his face.

* * *

_**Africa**_

* * *

The Gray Demons arrived at the local restaurant that they had heard about from Andrew Waltfield. The group had taken a table a bit farther back as Montgomery Campbell went to take their orders after a bit of searching over the menus. Falcon took up the Desert Tiger's suggestion of kabobs with the yogurt sauce. Laura was doing the same while the others were ordering other items.

"So what do you think Falcon? Is the Tiger's assessment accurate?"

Laura waited for Ken's reply as the others watched him finish his first skewer. After he set the spit down, he shrugged. The action made the group around the table moan and shake their heads in disbelief. Ken smirked and leaned back in his chair a bit.

"They're okay. I'm not the gourmet here, Andy is and it's borderline obsession for him."

"This coming from the one who's a sword buff to the extreme that all of us now wield one? Pot calling the kettle black Boss." Tom Delaney propped his elbows on the table as he called his commander out. Ken had enough manners to look slightly rebuffed.

"Really Tom? You, who forged our swords don't really have much to say on that either."

"Touche."

The TV was broadcasting a live announcement from Uzumi Nara Atha from Orb to the rest of the world. In it, he spoke of Orb's continued neutrality in the continued conflicts. What kept his attention were the two individuals sitting behind representative of Orb with passive expressions. An aged, but wizened visage hid a brutal combat veteran in the man with slightly graying hair. His countenance was benevolent, but the world knew that the man had a sharp edge that could split durasteel without effort. The woman beside him only supported her husband's impressive aura. Her face remained just as stoic as her partner's, but her eyes held concern behind a cautious yet caring veil.

"Look, it's Romania's King and Queen." Several patrons actually stopped what they were doing and began to pay attention to the newscast.

"He sure looks like a tough nut to crack." The Gray Demons looked to Sparky. Ken glanced at his XO quizzically. He'd heard the stories of the parents of The Immortal and had a decent amount of respect and a slight touch of admiration for them.

"Of course he does Sparky. They literally tore away from the Eurasians and took two additional nations with them and succeeded. Unlike Orb, which was independent from the beginning and retracts from the world in a shell, Romania has continually sought out and any military threat that moved against them rather than let it come knocking on their doorstep. It's one thing to say you're neutral, it's quite another to actively control and push their neutrality unlike Orb."

A man with dark tan skin and blue-gray hair stepped over to the table they were seated at with a stern expression crossing his features.

"What did you say about Orb?"

"I was merely pointing out Romania's differences to Orb. I feel much better allying myself with them rather than Orb for the simple difference in that one aspect of their philosophy. They have far more combat experience as a whole and it has the world on edge to try to move against them. Hell, ZAFT knows better than to pick a fight with Romania simply due to that Indestructible Fleet commanded by the Prince and future Princess themselves. They're warriors to the core and that is the difference between Romanians and the soldiers of Orb. What difference does it make to you?"

The man pounded a fist on the table, making all the drinks and the few plates of food still there rattle. Several other clusters of people were now giving them their full attention.

"I am Kisaka. A soldier of Orb's military and it makes a huge difference."

"And what's a soldier of Orb doing here in Africa of all places? Sightseeing? There's not much here other than sand and more sand. Did you get tired of the oceans?"

Laura chuckled a bit as the others smirked at Falcon's words. Knowing Falcon's views of military power, technology, fundamental strategies and tactics, Orb's neutral stance and its military tech didn't make any sense when all they ever did was drill. For Falcon, drills didn't mean squat on the battlefield. Out of Falcon's Lesson's of War Number 29: "If it looks good in a drill, it's gonna get ripped apart in combat." When they first faced Alexsander's unit after the Bloody Valentine, it had been their first real face-to-face encounter. Falcon had thought that The Immortal was getting lucky considering several of the commanders that had gone against them weren't slouches, but they weren't the best either.

Seeing them fight on the battlefield before they joined the fray made Falcon realize that Alex's unit and the fleet supporting them were veterans of hard boiled combat and displayed a simplistic, but vicious combat style. The squadron's observations had the Grimaldi Falcon re-evaluate things. The majority of everyone in the Gray Demons knew that this batch of space soldiers were pragmatic fighters whose main goal was survival. In truth, he hadn't really given the Romanian Fleet any real thought until after they all had made it back to the Nacht Jaeger. "Sparky" Lance Cooper would never forget entering Falcon's office in time to see the man slam a fist on his desk and swear.

* * *

_**Falcon's Office **_

_**Nacht Jaeger**_

_**Shortly after the Furball from Hell**_

* * *

"Boss, careful there, you could break your hand doing that!"

Falcon slammed a fist down again and sent his pen holder off the desk. The objects clattered loudly as they spread across the floor. The eyes that the Ace of ZAFT glared at Cooper froze him in place. They were almost translucent.

"Damn it Sparky! We were nearly turned into scrap by that single unit! They were half our size Sparky! HALF!! We outnumbered those pilots two-to-one in MOBILE SUITS and they nearly killed us all even after two of them went down!"

Sparky swallowed as the realization finally hit home. The only one who had gotten off somewhat lightly was Victor, oddly enough. When he really thought about for another few minutes Lance Cooper broke into a cold sweat. They had outnumbered the Mitternacht Wolfe squadron three-to-one and got pounded. It was beginning to look like a miracle that they had all made it home alive.

"Zero pilots are only just barely a cut above the average Mobile Armor pilot in the EA Sparky. I know you know that. One's like Mu La Flaga are rare and fortunately few. However, it's obvious that Alexsander Wallachia Tepes has several Aces of his own and what makes them so powerful is that they are all at Mu's level of piloting or higher. Actually, I think if I didn't go Beserker when I did, I think they would have defeated us. As much as I grudgingly admit to it."

Lance, not one to see Kenneth DiFalco so easily admit a loss . . . swallowed hard.

"May I ask why you think that?"

Ken began to pace back and forth in a much calmer state of mind.

"I think he was like me - in that transcendent frame of mind. Like the first time back during the Bloody Valentine where I flew my GINN to pieces. I think he's a Beserker. Unlike me though, I think he can control when it activates."

"Is that even possible?"

Falcon took a seat in his chair and called up the video replays of the battle. Cooper took a seat in an opposing chair.

"Watch this replay that I've inserted slow motion caps to. You're in for a shock."

The battle replayed and nothing edited occurred until Falcon and Alex clashed and Sparky thought he was looking at something out of a movie.

* * *

_**Africa**_

* * *

Kisaka grit his teeth at the youth in front of him.

"You want to start something?"

Falcon scowled.

"I've seen more bloodshed than most everybody in this place will in their lifetime. Can you honestly say that Orb's forces would be able to put up the kind of fight Romania has proven they can. The only thing saving that country is the fact that your technology is far more advanced and that Romania feels that you're a sibling nation."

Kisaka crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're saying that Orb has no experience?"

"That and they lack the resolve because they have never been through the hells that Romania has. Do you even know how to hold yourself on a battlefield? Much less know what one looks like?"

Kisaka glared at the Mobile Suit pilot.

"Wanna find out?"

To their surprise, Ken stood and walked over to the Orb soldier.

"Alright then."

The two men took stances and the bar went silent. The presentation on the TV forgotten with the advent of a fist fight. Sparky snapped twice to get his fellow pilots' attention.

"I've got five on the Boss. Who's in?"

Montgomery Campbell smirked and added his five to the pot on Kenneth. Laura smirked and took out her credits.

"I don't know guys, I'm actually going to go against you and put it on that Kisaka fellow. Ken's good with a sword, but hand-to-hand?"

The squadron looked slightly surprised and impressed. Normally Laura just went with whatever Falcon was up to. Then again, she always had been his foil in more than one way. Delaney chipped in on Kisaka as well.

"I know the Boss, in a sword match none of us can outmatch him. But this isn't a sword duel, so I'm with Laura on this one."

Leanne Eldridge sighed as she added her money to the impromptu gamble.

"The Boss is the reason I got involved in all of this so I'm going with him. So that makes it three in favor of Falcon. What about you Alicia?"

Alicia only smirked.

"I'm going to say that both of them beat each other soundly, but neither wins and they both end up with some kind of weird respect thing between them. Count me out of this one guys."

The group looked at her in unison.

"Killjoy."

Alicia Sharpe only sipped her drink merrily as the first fists were thrown.


	3. Chapter 3

**Gundam Seed: Wolves of War**

**Disclaimer: The Gray Demons and Kenneth DiFalco are the creations from Solid Shark and are being used with his advice and assistance. GS is not mine.**

**Chapter 2: Attack on Heliopolis**

Alexsander Tepes sat in the cockpit of the machine he and his team had been slaving over for the past several months without end. The result was a sleek, flexible machine capable of tearing through atmosphere or space with ruthless abandon. All of the weapons systems were more or less in their final stages, though the only limit on them were their ammo counts. The way he figured it, beam weapons were pretty much out of the equation.

'_Granted, the Valkyrie is already devastating against everything but the G-Weapons.'_

Reading over the diagnostics for his personal machine, he had to nod in satisfaction. The machine bristled with weaponry. It carried a pair of 25mm high speed machine guns, a 58mm gatling gun pod, an integrated laser defense system, and more missiles than you could shake a stick at. The other Valkyries sat in their docking stations receiving their squadron paint schemes. All of them would carry a dark, near black violet scheme with silver highlights.

He sighed as he melted into the pilot's chair. The ergonomic design canted slightly back like the twentieth century F-16 Falcon. Gripping his controls and mentally picturing flying the machine, he let a small smile creep across his face. A knock on the raised canopy shook him from his reverie.

"Sorry to interrupt your Highness, but today's the day that the pilots of the G-Weapons are supposed to arrive."

Opening his eyes, he glanced at the speaker to see Evan Sanders leaning on the opening with a semi-bored expression. Behind him, his twin brother Allen sighed and held some papers up to him. Taking the papers, Alex quirked an eyebrow as he shifted through he pages.

"This is . . . ?"

"It's the overall progress on the re-haul on the _Stiletto_. Isabella asked me if I could get this to you so you could get it to Her Highness." At that, Alex smirked.

"You mean to Marisa? She works today at the technical school but alright. I'll run it by 'Her Highness'. You know that she doesn't like being called that."

The twins shrugged and chuckled as he shook the papers at them like a parent scolding children. They were the sons of a well off family in Romania and they had been good friends with Alex before they'd ever joined the Earth Alliance.

"Well, Alex, she knows that she's going to have to get used to it. God knows when you two return to Romania that's how it's going to be. Especially once the King decides to hand off the throne to you two."

Alex slapped himself in the face before dragging it down and letting loose a long breath.

"I know . . . I know. Urgh. Father and Mother both nagged me about it shortly after we were wed, but I don't believe it to be anywhere near the appropriate time to do such a thing. Fortunately, they both seem to realize this. On a different note, how are your machines coming along?"

The two men grinned like cats that got the cream.

* * *

**_Heliopolis_**

**_Inner Court Area

* * *

_**

Farther into the colony Marisa walked to the nearest transit station with Rachelle by her side. The red headed woman had taken a kind of bodyguard role whenever she wasn't piloting with the Wolfe squadron. Marisa trusted her with the role and enjoyed the other woman's company. She found it funny, as they originally hadn't been friends at all. The two women had actually gone at each other's throats for a while until Alex and several others broke them up. The others being Evan and Allen. After all the misunderstandings had been worked out, they had gotten along just fine.

"Heads up, there's your class of misfits. Kira being among them."

Rachelle was dressed in black cargo pants with an ocean blue collarless shirt. Over it she wore a leather riding jacket with her hair down. She stood half a head height taller than Marisa, who wore a crisp business suit and her dark hair in a short tail that began at the base of her skull. Marisa merely nodded and put on a smile.

"Good morning everyone. You'll be late for class if you dawdle too long."

The group turned in her direction in surprise.

"Professor! I didn't know you used this transit point."

"I do Miriallia. Is everyone doing well?"

Nods went around the group.

"Good, good. I assume that Sai and Kuzzey are already at lab working on their project?"

"Yes ma'am. Um, Professor, who's that?"

Tolle Koenig motioned to Rachelle, who stood just a bit behind Marisa. The heiress to Romania turned and motioned her friend forward.

"This is Rachelle. Rachelle, this is a small group from one of the classes I've been teaching. The one who asked who you were is Tolle Koenig. That is Miriallia Hawe and Kira Yamato and she is . . ."

"Flay Allster. I've seen her before. Pretty, yet woefully naïve and a bit too pampered for my liking. Sorry Marisa, but I've got to run. I'm a bit late for work."

Marisa shook her head sadly at her rude jab at the daughter of Mr. Allster. Not that she could really blame her. He did sympathize with Blue Cosmos to a large degree and had butted heads with Alexsander on one occasion, though Marisa hadn't been with him at the time. Part of her was grateful for that now. As Rachelle walked off, Flay responded how Marisa expected her to.

"What was that?! Who does she think she is?!"

Marisa said nothing, preferring to keep her tongue in check. As a Coordinator herself, she despised Allster, though she felt sympathy for his daughter. A cough from behind her made everyone jolt a bit. Marisa turned to see three individuals with shades standing behind them. In the back of her mind, Marisa immediately recognized them.

'_Crew members of the Archangel.'_

"I'm sorry, but may we pass?"

"My apologies. Go ahead."

She just smiled amiably at them as they passed and got into the next transit cab. Inside the car, Natarle took off her shades and sighed. Neumann removed his own shades and glanced at the Lieutenant in the passenger front seat.

"Is something the matter Lieutenant?"

Something about that one woman made me uneasy. Other than that, it's amazing that these kids live in such an innocent lifestyle despite the conflict around them."

The three Earth Alliance soldiers shrugged and focused on their task at hand, getting to the _Archangel.

* * *

_

**_ZAFT HQ Ship Harbor_**

**_Laurasia Class _**_**Nacht Jaeger

* * *

**_

"Boss, what are you doing back so soon?"

Laura Elsman took up a staggered walking position to him as he boarded the Gray Demons' flag ship. Now, the pair proceeded to the bridge. Entering, Sparky turned and smirked.

"So, are we shipping out or staying here?"

"We're heading out post haste Sparky. Chairman Clyne has made a personal request of us and we are obligated to fulfill that request."

The rest of the squadron filed in as the bridge crew began to finish launch preparations. Kenneth thought about Siegel Clyne's words and part of him soured. It wasn't that he didn't like the Head of the Plants Supreme Council, but he could see the political play for what it was. Deep down inside, he was slightly grateful if only to be able to pay his respects to the remnants of his home colony, Junius Seven. Finding the _Silverwind _was going to be a chore given the ruined colony's location in the asteroid belt, but it wouldn't be impossible. Taking a seat in the captain's chair, he left the rest of the team take care of all the launch preparations.

* * *

**_Heliopolis_**

_**Morgenroete**

* * *

_

Dressed as a Morgenroete engineer, Alex walked through the facilities housing the Archangel. He wasn't about to enter the highly guarded areas housing the G-Weapons themselves. Looking upon the vessel with a rush of mixed feelings, he sighed.

"Such a beautiful ship despite the intended purpose that those bastards in the top brass have for her." Looking toward the locations that housed the Lohengrens, he shivered slightly. "It has the ability to best the Stiletto before her refit, and even then it can still fight on par with our own flagship. The only advantage we hold is the element of surprise, and that rarely ever is achieved. What lesson number was that in DiFalco's Lessons of War? Oh well."

The papers in his hand rustled as a forklift passed by. Suddenly remembering the errand he had to run to Marisa, Alex regained his senses. Tilting his cap a bit, he hurried onward, oblivious to the female technician that eyed him with suspicious eyes. Her raven black hair swayed a bit. Lieutenant (Senior Grade) Sophia DiFalco was not unfamiliar with faces of famous pilots that flew under the Earth Alliance emblem.

"Was that the Immortal . . . ? No, why would he be here on this colony of all places? I must be working too hard on the final prototype. They disappeared completely after Endymion. Where are they now? I know they weren't fond of the majority of the EA, but they were the most battle hardened force we had."

Walking over to the hangar bay holding the project she'd personally taken charge of, she keyed in the access code and entered. The team that was assisting her briefly saluted her before continuing to work on the 19 meter tall G-Weapon. Approaching her personal terminal, she began typing. The coding for the OS was giving her fits. Sure, it could _move, _but moving didn't mean anything on a battlefield.

"This is so much more difficult than what was first predicted. This is one of the few times I have to give the engineers at the Plants their due. They make this look like a cakewalk."

On her diagnostic screen, the name of the Mobile Suit that she was working on displayed its call name: GAT-X 107 Wildflower.

* * *

_**Engineering School

* * *

**_

Kira Yamato sighed as he entered the classroom to find Sai and Kuzzey working diligently on whatever project they were finishing. Marisa entered the room without a word and proceeded to her desk. When she had stopped by the faculty office, there had been a letter for her, though she hadn't said who had sent it to her.

"Hey Sai. Hey Kuzzey."

The two students stopped their work and smiled at their friends.

"Hey everyone. We're almost done with our work. Oh, um, Professor, who is the new student?"

Marisa looked up from her letter and then to the back of the room. The "new student" as Sai put it, fairly glowered in the back of the classroom. Looking back down to her letter, she lifted a brow.

'_Seems they're on top of everything on Earth's surface, just how far have we spread our tendrils?'_

"You needn't worry about it Mr. Argyle. She'll be observing things here for a while. Just carry on with your work."

Everyone in the room merely nodded as they began to talk about other things. From her place in the room, Cagalli Yula Atha narrowed her gaze at them before throwing a keen glance Marisa's direction.

'_Who is she? I swear she looks so familiar. Where have I seen her before?'_

The group of students stole a peek at Marisa as she continued to work. Miriallia held up a hand to soften her voice as everyone leaned in.

"Don't you think the Professor's been acting strange lately? She seems really anxious, like something ominous happened."

Tolle Koenig nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I mean, she's normally pretty friendly, but here recently, she's been distant. Do you think she's moving?"

The others shrugged before going about their school work when a knock at the door drew everyone's attention. A man in a slate gray and orange engineer's jumpsuit entered and tilted his hat toward them in apology. Walking straight up to Marisa's desk, he presented the papers in his hand to her. The group looked back and forth at each other when they noticed her serious facial expression.

"What's a worker from Morgenroete doing here?"

They watched silently as she flipped through the first several sheets and nodded with a semi-stern look. Setting the paperwork down, she folded her arms and spoke to the man.

"Eighty-seven percent completion? Well, that's better than nothing, though it's still not what had been predicted. I see the focusing emitters were the problem as predicted. Do we know how long it'll be?"

"Unfortunately, it won't be soon enough. The final flight of crew members is scheduled to arrive today. It's now or never Marisa."

"Well, it looks like we'll have another problem to deal with. There is a new card on the table and it's quite the wild card."

The man looked in the direction that she motioned her head in to see the blonde haired individual at the back of the lab room. Narrowing his gaze while retaining a neutral look, he mentally rolled his eyes. He recognized the princess of Orb despite her hair being hidden up in her hat. Silently, he wondered if she recognized the two of them. The last time they had visited the island nations of Orb had been six years ago. Cagalli had been ten.

"I see. Is she here because of the project?"

"She's here to investigate it. How she got wind of it we aren't certain, but this could get dangerous really quick."

"Understood."

Approaching her, Alex tipped his hat politely.

"You're here to investigate the happenings here at Heliopolis's branch of Morgenroete?"

He noticed her suddenly guarded look and slowly took a seat across from her. Keeping his voice down as Marisa hurried the students to their next assignment; he withdrew a palm pilot from his right cargo pocket.

"I just came from the facilities. This information is reliable."

"What's your name?"

Crossing his arms over his chest he gave her a look of slight disdain.

"I would ask you the same. Yet due to the sensitivity of this information, wouldn't it be better to remain anonymous to each other?"

Cagalli bit her lip and nodded, quickly catching on to his reasoning. Moving to get a better look at the hand held device in his hands, she nodded for him to continue.

"I'm glad to see you catch on quickly. First of all, all of the machines that are in their final stages are equipped with a new technology called Phase Shift. This is a special armor coating that deflects the vast majority of kinetic weaponry and a large portion of explosives. The only thing that will punch through it is energy weaponry. Other than that, the only other option is to outlast the machine's energy supply."

Cagalli nodded as the image of the first machine lit up on the screen.

"This is the GAT-X 101 Strike. I believe this one to be the core basis for all the others. Alone, it is insubstantial, having only a pair of Armor Schneider combat knives, head vulcans, and beam rifle. However, what makes it deadly is the variable weapons backpacks that dock onto the unit. The Aile Striker is a high maneuver combat type that adds flight and a beam saber to the mix. The second unit is the Sword Striker Pack that gives is close range abilities with the Panzer Eizen rocket anchor, a Midas Meiser beam boomerang and the Schwert Gewher anti-ship beam blade. Hm? You look a bit pale, is everything okay?"

Cagalli clenched a fist by her side. It was even worse than she had feared and this was only the first of the G-Weapons that she had heard about. Her mind raced as she couldn't believe that Orb was assisting the EA in making such horrible weapons of war.

'_Father, how could you?'

* * *

_

_**Heliopolis Docking Bays Aft side**_

_**Space Dock L39

* * *

**_

"Allen, Evan, you two might want to check this out."

Isabella Wilder sat at her chair in the CIC of the _Stiletto_. The two pilots were having a coffee break with her while supplies were being brought aboard. All of the Valkyries were already stowed in their hangar ports and ready for action even if their home wasn't fully up to snuff. When Elenore Baker had nearly choked on her drink, she had walked over to her controls and taken a look for herself. As the twins looked over their shoulders, the group swallowed.

"Is that a Laurasia class ship?"

The group looked at each other with the same thought in their minds.

"We're out of time." Isabella hit the switch on the ship wide communications net. "Attention all hands. Attention all hands. This is Isabella Wilder on the bridge. Code Serpent. Code Serpent. All hands are to board the ship immediately. Estimated Time of Departure is unknown, all hands prepare for emergency departure under Combat Code Yellow."

All around the hangars, crew members of the Romanian flagship kicked into overdrive as they began to load necessities and other valuables onto the ship. The doors to the bridge slid open to reveal Ritcher Occan.

"What's going on? Is there a ZAFT vessel outside the colony?"

The group nodded and Elenore brought up her readings on the main display screen for their helmsman to see.

"That IFF signature. Is that the Gamow? Hold on a second, is that a Nazca class with it?"

The group took another look at the displays. A second blip appeared with the other one in a staggered formation. Elenore worked furiously at her panels. Her fingers flew across the keys; her typing was the only thing that everyone could hear despite the commotion outside.

"Working. Hold on. IFF identification confirmed. It's . . ." the woman hesitated and let go a deep breath. "It's the Vesalius."

The group went cold. Evan smashed a fist into his palm.

"It's Rau Le Crueset. Damn it, why him?"

Isabella was about to go to her station and call Marisa and Alex when Elenore loosed a curse in their nation's old tongue and began working furiously at her consoles to get low level jamming going. On the screens, blips began to shoot out from the two ships. The whole crew knew exactly what was going on. A raid party.

* * *

_**ZAFT Nazca Class**_

_**Vesalius

* * *

**_

"Well, the party is away and so far, they haven't been detected."

Rau Le Crueset stood with a quiet patience on the bridge. The Captain Ades nodded in agreement. They had been sent here to investigate the vague reports of EA activity with a team of young, but highly promising Redcoats. The entire team of pilots was in their teens, yet they were the best ones suited for the operation based on their Academy reports. Captain Ades looked over to the Commander of the team and frowned slightly.

"Yes, though I do wonder about the success rate. Many of our Greencoats have two to three times as much experience in live combat."

"I wouldn't fret so much over them Ades. They have been in battles before. True, infiltration is something different for them, but the objective isn't combat, it's retrieval."

"What about that late addition?"

The masked man tilted his head upward by a fraction.

"Hm? Ah, you mean Shiho Hahnenfuss? Out of all of them, I'm least concerned about her. She's a veteran and one of Falcon's former squadron members."

Ades leaned back a bit.

"She was a Gray Demon?" Rau nodded.

"Yes, and as far as I know, they separated on good terms, though I don't know the exact details. Regardless, she is the most experienced member on this crew other than you and myself. I wouldn't worry too much."

Ades nodded.

In space, Mu La Flaga was fighting a losing battle. His support was blown away in the first few minutes of the fighting after they had scrambled. He was still holding his own, but the fact that the majority of the Mobile Suits deployed had shot past him and into the colony made him really worry.

"Argh, dammit, they're after the G-Weapons. Those crewmen better get it in gear."

The blue CGUE that had downed his two partners had obviously seen a lot of combat beforehand. The maneuvers that the pilot had pulled had been deliberate bait and destroy tactics. His wingmen never knew what hit them.

"Now that unit's inside the colony. I wish I could go in to help but . . ." Mu evaded a wild burst of gunfire from an overeager pilot before turning him into space dust with several bursts from his wired gun barrels. "Things out here are still pretty hairy."

His gun barrels twisted and spiraled around the mainframe of the Zero, spitting out molten slugs from their barrels at a feverish pace. The ZAFT pilots went evasive as they tried to close in on the colony. Two more suits exploded in a twin flash of light as Mu lanced with two shots of his linear gun.

* * *

**_Heliopolis _**

**_Colony Main Interior

* * *

_**

Inside the colony the suddenly raid siren that howled its baleful cry across the entire space was suddenly accompanied by the sounds of guns and explosions. In the lab class, Alex slowly rose from his seat and walked to the windows. Placing a hand against them, he stared at the growing violent spectacle with half lidded eyes. Removing the jumpsuit he wore, the students were shocked to see him wearing a unique uniform unlike anything they'd seen before.

"Marisa. Our time is up. Get these kids to safety, and then get to the _Stiletto_. The crew's probably waiting on you."

"What about you Alex?"

"I'm going to the G-Weapon facilities. They're after the new prototypes."

Marisa nodded as she began to see Alex's reasoning. They had to at least keep one or two of the G-Weapons if at all possible. Alex sprinted out the door faster than anyone thought possible. All questions died out when a distant explosion shook the building. Marisa began guiding the group out of the facilities when she received a call on her phone. Answering the device, she heard Nicholas Lancaster in the background as Isabella hailed her.

"_Admiral, it's a Nazca and a Laurasia. We've confirmed them as the Gamow and the Vesalius of the Le Crueset team. Where are you?"_

Marisa winced. Rau was formidable when the odds were even. What they found themselves in now was definitely unfavorable. Before she could formulate an answer, she noticed that Cagalli had run off on her own with Kira in hot pursuit. Shaking her head in exasperation, she caught Mir by the shoulder.

"Miriallia."

"Yes?!"

The girl was in shock and fear at the carnage that was swiftly spreading across the colony. Gently steadying her with both hands on the girl's shoulders, she looked at her calmly.

"Listen closely, the nearest evacuation shelter is five blocks that way." She spoke calmly and gently as she pointed in the direction of the emergency facilities. "I'm going to get that newcomer and Kira and we'll see you there alright? Lead the others."

The teen nodded even though she was still rattled. As Marisa darted off to follow Kira and the wayward Cagalli, she was thankful that she wore a pant suit to work that day. Sparing a quick glance over her shoulder she could see Mir leading the rest of the students in the direction she had pointed out.

"Not bad Miriallia. You're pretty good for the situation. Stay safe."

She had a good guess where Cagalli was going after the letter they had received concerning the princess of Orb from Alex's Father and Mother. Uzumi Nara Atha would be furious and heartbroken if anything were to happen to the girl.

"That girl. She's so stubborn. Then again, that is an Atha for you."

Meanwhile, Alex was in full sprint, running as fast as his legs would allow. There was one sight that lead him toward a specific hangar area and that was the twenty-plus meter tall blue CGUE. Taking cover behind a wrecked jeep, he peeked around the engine block to see several commandos in a fierce firefight with the few EA soldiers left alive. Glancing inside the jeep he found an assault rifle and a combat knife. Discreetly commandeering both of the weapons, he checked the amount of ammunition.

"A full clip. Better than nothing, but still not enough. I'm going to have to use this wisely."

Shouldering the weapon, he aimed down the sights. Counting the timing of the ZAFT commandos, he waited for one of them to reload. The farthest one stopped and crouched as he dropped his empty magazine from the sub machine gun. Popping up from cover, Alex tapped the trigger once, sending a three shot burst ripping through the air. Each of the bullets found their new home in the closest soldier, dropping him before he even knew what happened.

His closest comrade watched him fall in a bit of a stupor before he began to turn to fire at Alex. Another burst barked from the barrel of his borrowed weapon. The shots went wide, but did enough to make the other two make a break for cover. Firing again, he managed to catch the man in the legs, dropping him without killing him, though the pain was probably unbearable.

Ducking back behind the jeep as he began taking fire from the other two troops, he let the one who had been reloading to take his wounded friend to cover.

'_He'll be tied up treating his comrade.' _The dull thud roll of a certain hand held explosive made him mentally swear. _'You're joking.'_

Spotting the wayward grenade, a seed within his mindscape burst and he dove for the explosive. Scooping it up in one smooth motion, he lobbed the oblong thrown weapon back in the direction it had come from. A loud crack-boom echoed through the air as it exploded. Lifting the AR, he pulled the trigger three times at the single man trying to get a bead on him. The first cluster of rounds went wild as the second sprayed his arm and the last trio of lead caught its target in the chest, sending him back and down with a garbled death moan. Dashing toward the barricade they were using as cover, he brought the rifle to bear again and pulled the trigger as the final soldier began to raise his weapon.

The slightly high-pitched clink that answered him sent a chill down his spine. He didn't need to look at the firearm in his hands to know a jammed action. Dumping the weapon he rolled forward as he flipped the knife from his belt. The staccato bark of rapid fire shots rang out and Alex winced as he felt a stinging pain before finishing his roll in a break fall as he lashed out, throwing the knife. The blade sank into the man's face mask, piercing through it and lodging itself in his head.

A single loud bark of a rifle made him look back to where the other two men had retreated to. The unwounded soldier was halfway to him with his submachine gun as he fell to the side. A woman with dark hair and intense green eyes held an assault rifle in her hands and made her way toward him. The barrel of her weapon smoked and she knelt beside him.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll live. Thanks, I owe you one miss?"

"Sophia. Sophia DiFalco, Earth Alliance Lieutenant 1st Class."

In the back of his mind, red flags went up all over the place, but he kept his tongue still. Accepting her hand as she helped him up, he winced. He'd been hit in that roll – though exactly where he couldn't tell at the moment. He set about taking the dead soldier's sub machine gun and another combat knife before facing the woman he guessed was the Grimaldi Falcon's sister.

"DiFalco, what of the final unit? Is it safe?"

Before she could say anything, the hangar roof shattered and the silhouette of a Mobile Suit became visible in the dust and smoke. The GAT-X 107 Wildflower was activated and not under the control of the Earth Alliance. A split second went by before Alex grabbed the woman by the sleeve and jerked her away as he began to retreat.

"No! That's my!"

"It's not yours anymore Lieutenant! ZAFT has that Suit now! Let's move! We have to get to the _Stiletto_ while she's still in her berth! Come in Evan! This is Alexsander! The G-Weapons are compromised! I repeat, the G-Weapons are compromised! Move to Operation Valhalla, ETA for Prince and one other, five minutes, over."

"_Understood Your Highness. Rachelle met up with Marisa and they're with the Archangel's surviving crew."_

"Copy that Evan. Status on Wolfe Pack?"

"_Green sir. We're ready to deploy at any time."_

"Good, standby and keep me updated. Prince out."

Behind him, Sophia DiFalco grew wide eyed as she followed him. She knew the name of the flagship of the Indestructible Fleet. The fact that she had just saved one of the most feared aces in the war, much less royalty left her in a bit of a stupor as she trailed him.

As they began to move closer to their destination, the roar of two Mobile Suits drew their attention. Both of them stopped as the GAT-X 101 Strike skewered a GINN with both of its anti-armor knives. The two individuals gawked at the spectacle. The Strike had its Phase Shift up, but the unit was moving at an astonished pace. Both of them were pretty sure that whoever was piloting it wasn't one of the originally planned pilots from the EA. As Alex began to run through who could possibly pilot it, he caught sight of the ZAFT pilot flying away from his GINN. Realizing exactly where they were standing, he mentally swore.

"Lieutenant!" Alex dove at her just as the GINN detonated, sending the Strike backward and straight at them. As the 65 ton weapon skidded through the pavement they were on, Alex tackled Sophia as he dove for safety. Spinning as he knocked her over, he landed on his back and grit his teeth as the sharp pain stabbed through his lower back. The G-Weapon barely missed them by a few feet.

Sophia winced from the impact before slowly collecting herself from her place on top of her rescuer. First, she looked in the direction of the Strike and sighed in relief, the suit was down, but still alright. A speck of crimson out of the corner of her eye made her look down to see a dark red streak three feet long lead up to where she was. Looking down, Alexsander struggled to rise as he looked toward the downed Mobile Suit.

"Alex, are you hit?" She was grateful that he had shielded her from hitting concrete, but he was obviously in worse condition than she was.

"I'm wounded, but I don't think it's anything vital. Still, I would appreciate it if you check."

Handing her the combat knife, she took the weapon as he sat upright. Cutting into the fabric of the jumpsuit where she could see the bullet hole, she gently tore away the cloth. Other than slowly seeping blood, she couldn't really tell. Then she noticed it – a livid shallow gouge.

"You're lucky Alex. The bullet grazed you, though it did come dangerously close. You've got a pretty nasty line on you."

The man sighed and nodded as he gingerly stood up and gave a serious look in the direction of the Strike.

"Who was piloting the Strike? It's not one of the originally assigned pilots. Not to put down humanity, but Naturals just aren't capable of piloting it to that level."

"I don't know. Wait, just what are you doing here on the colony Immortal?"

Alex glanced over his shoulder at her and began walking in the direction of the Strike. Sophia deduced that she wasn't getting an answer. Given the circumstances, she couldn't really blame him either. They could come under ZAFT attack again at any moment. As they drew close to the massive weapon, the cockpit hatch opened. Shouldering his new weapon, his voice boomed like a megaphone.

"Come out with your hands visible! Any suspicious moves and I will open fire!"

A pair of hands came up over the edge as a young man's voice exited the cockpit.

"Don't shoot, I have an unconscious woman with me and she's injured!"

The two looked to each other and frowned at the same time. A boy? The head that popped over the edge made the color drain from Alex's face. Kira Yamato struggled to haul a woman in an orange jumpsuit out and Sophia immediately recognized her friend.

"Murrue! Hold on kid. I'll help you."

Alex keyed his radio and grit his teeth as Allen answered.

"_We're here Commander, what's going on?"_

"Good and bad news I'm afraid Allen." There was a pause on Allen's end. Taking that a sign to continue, he sighed. "The good news first. We still have the Strike out of all the units."

"_Okay, what's the bad news?"_

"Kira Yamato is the pilot."

* * *

**Alex's fears of Kira Yamato piloting a Mobile Suit come true. Now what will happen when things go from bad to worse as the attack grows ever more choatic? What is Kenneth DiFalco's assignment? Read and Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Gundam Seed: Wolves of War**

**Disclaimer: GS isn't mine and Kenneth DiFalco and his Gray Demons are the property of Solid Shark. We are in correspondence and working to keep his unit in character and are adjusting situations due to certain changes in the canon story.**

**Chapter 3: Convergence of Aces**

Alexsander's voice over the transmission made the crew on the bridge of the _Stiletto _tense. Evan joined his brother at the console.

"Are you serious Your Highness?"

"_I'm watching him haul an injured EA officer out of the cockpit. He took out a GINN solo with just the Armor Schnieders."_

The twins swallowed as a chill ran up both of their spines. The GINN was a unit that mauled newcomers to the battlefield. At least the newbies were familiar with their machines, but Kira had no training, never seen a Mobile Suit – much less a G-Weapon – and taken out a GINN alone with no help. It was unheard of.

"Command to deploy sir?"

"_Negative. Give me a sitrep first, and then we'll see."_

Looking to Elenore Baker in the sensor and radar stations, the blonde woman went through an array of scans before speaking.

"The Hawk of Endymion is outside the colony fighting off several suits. Neither the Gamow or the Vesalius are moving from their current positions. I've taken note that all of the other G-Weapons captured by their commando force are at the two ships. Hold one . . . wait, I take that back, the Aegis is just now leaving the colony and Mu's in pursuit of a single unit. Judging by what little combat we could analyze, it's probably Rau himself."

A punctuated pause told them that Alex was thinking over the situation.

"_Allen, can you get in here with a Valkyrie?"_

"Yes. Though it'll be a couple of minutes."

"_That's fine, but come with a full combat loadout."_

"Understood."

Allen left the bridge and began to make his way down to the hangars to prep his machine. Isabella in CIC keyed her frequency channel and hailed the entirety of the ship.

"Attention Wolfe flight crew unit three. Prep Valkyrie for sortie. Repeat load Valkyrie for sortie. Standard weapons layout Alpha: full gun load, full gatling load, full missile payload, and standard charge on the beam guns. Allen ETA three minutes and counting."

Down in the hangars, Allen's flight crew scrambled to prep his Valkyrie with everything Isabella ordered them to. Men and women hollered at each other with updates on the procedures. Belts of 25mm machine gun ammo were loaded into their magazines. Several people locked the gatling gun pod and its ammunition into place on the belly of the plane. The technicians had already begun to double check the twin beam guns charges, tweaking their output and aim calibrations. Another set of technicians loaded the missiles on their hard points under the plane's wings and into their launch pods. The final crew disconnected fuel lines and energy charge cables. The rest of the hangar watched anxiously for when their turns were up to prep their assigned machines. It would be the first combat prep for all of them since Endymion.

Allen suited up in the locker room and smirked. The new suits were flight capable on their own and created a slave connection to their assigned fighter, allowing them to fly the plane while extravehicular. It was a groundbreaking technology that Romania hoarded to itself. Then again, the Valkyrie project in general was revolutionary all on its own.

'_Truly, Alexsander, you are a frightening military engineer. Your piloting prowess only makes you all the more terrifying. Then again, I'd rather have no one else to pledge my life to when our country is only one of a bare handful to stand on their own during these hellish times. You really are a Tepes.'_

Placing his helmet underneath his arm, he took a deep breath before exiting out to the hangar. It was time to fly again. Heading out onto the hangar deck, he nodded to his chief maintenance officer and climbed up into the cockpit. Strapping himself in, he began running through the start up procedures. Looking down to see the lead tech question him with a thumb up, he returned the gesture and the tech spun his middle and index fingers in circles above his head. He could barely hear his voice.

"Spin'em up!"

Allen nodded and punched the engines to fire up. The machine whined and shrieked before revving up to full power. The Valkyrie's controls and displays lit up and the holographic assistance displays in his helmet visor came to life as they slaved to the fighter. Following the flag officer who waved him forward, Allen guided the fighter out of its docking bay and toward the electromagnetic catapult. This wouldn't be the first time the crews had watched the fighter launch, but back then it had been test flights under half military power. Now, the fighter was at full military power and was launching for combat. Crews hooped and hollered as Allen returned their cheers with a salute.

Entering the reconfigured catapult of the _Stiletto, _the Valkyrie locked into position. Holo displays lit up the length of the launcher and status signs appeared above and to the right.

"_Wolfe 3 this is Fortress One. You are green for launch."_

"Roger Fortress One. Wolfe 3 heading out."

"_Roger that Wolfe 3. Good hunting."_

_

* * *

_

_**Heliopolis**_

_**Space**_

_**

* * *

**_

Mu La Flaga was struggling to keep up with Rau Le Crueset's CGUE as they raced through the out layer of the colony. He had to check his fire countless times so he didn't damage parts of the giant space structure.

"Damn you Le Crueset! You're not getting away that easily!"

His radio was filled with a humored laughter that egged him on.

"Oh really Mu? Then why is it that I'm ahead of you?"

Mu saw an opening and fired with his linear gun. The white Mobile Suit turned and dodged the projectile as Rau returned the favor with a burst from his shield gatling. The Hawk dodged the return fire and swore under his breath. This was just too much for one day.

'_He's almost to the interior of the colony. I can't let him get there.'_

The two rivals zoomed in and out of structures with Mu trying to gain the advantage on Rau to little effect. Within such small and winding confines, he couldn't deploy his gun barrels because of their wiring.

"Grr. If Alexsander were fighting Rau, he'd be sending Rau packing. Guess I can't complain too much given the circumstances."

* * *

_**Heliopolis Interior**_

_**

* * *

**_

Alex watched Sophia DiFalco assist Kira in getting Murrue Ramius to a bench and set her down before tending to her wounded arm. Walking over to Kira, he held his weapon in a relaxed position as he approached the boy. Kira saw him coming and swallowed.

"I didn't mean to pilot it! But my friends were too close and . . ." Alex held up a hand to forestall any more rambling.

"Don't worry about it Kira. Just do me a favor will you? Get the Strike on its feet and power it down."

Kira nodded quietly and made his way over to the G-Weapon. Before he could get into the cockpit, voices and rushing footfalls made them look to the right.

"Kira!"

Miriallia lead the group followed closely by Tolle and Sai. Kuzzey brought up the rear of the teens. Kira stopped on the crest of the Strike and stared blankly at his friends.

"Guys."

The sound of a locking gun made everyone freeze. Glancing back, Alex saw Sophia DiFalco with her rifle raised.

"Hold it. None of you moves except for the boy on the Strike. Kira. That was your name wasn't it? Hurry and do what he asked of you. Get the Strike on its feet."

Seeing the apprehension in the teens and the slight anger in Kira's eyes, Alex walked over to the woman and placed a calming hand on her rifle.

"It's alright Sophia. Lower the weapon. They aren't soldiers and pose no threat to any of us."

"But Alexsander! The Strike is!"

"A top secret project? A little late for that don't you think? Their home is nothing but a ruined fragment of the war now. Give them a break."

Sophia nodded and grudgingly put down her rifle as Alex nodded at Kira. Taking the gesture in stride, Kira nodded his thanks before complying and getting into the Strike. His friends watched in amazement the Strike rose to its feet and then turned to a dull gray as its Phase Shift powered down. Lowering himself with the winch, Kira made his way back to everyone with a mixed pot of emotions.

"Sophia, how is the Lieutenant?"

Alex's question caught the woman off guard.

"She'll be fine. It's a slight concussion and a gunshot wound to the arm, but it didn't hit any bone or major nerves."

Alex nodded as he looked back at the G-Weapon behind him. Turning to Kira he gave the boy a questioning, but lax look.

"Was that you piloting the Strike Kira Yamato?"

"Yes, but how did you know?"

"You said that Murrue was unconscious. Now you tell me how an unconscious person pilots a Mobile Suit?"

Kira looked at his feet sheepishly for not thinking about that before. The others around them glanced back and forth before Sai stepped forward with an aggravated expression.

"Hey! What's going on here?! Why are Earth Alliance soldiers here? Why is ZAFT here? We're neutral!"

Alex turned to him with a stern expression that caught them by surprise.

"So are my people, but you don't see those at war giving a damn. The Earth Alliance needed a secluded place to work on their little project and so they hid here. That being said, do you really think ZAFT would let that slide just because they chose to use a neutral location as the base of their operation? The Earth Alliance is getting desperate, but with the NJC technology, they thankfully can't use their damned nuclear weapons. Does that answer your questions Sai Argyle?"

"What? How do you know my name?"

The group looked back and forth at each other.

"Your Professor talked about the lot of you quite a bit. Marisa is my wife."

The group was dumbfounded. Tolle stuttered as he pointed at Alex.

"W-wife?! You're her husband?"

Realizing just who was standing in front of her, Mir conked him on the back of the head before stepping forward and bowing to Alex. The action made Alex quirk an eyebrow as the others gawked at her.

"Mir what are you doing?"

"Hush Tolle! We're standing in front of Alexsander Wallachia Tepes of Romania! Marisa's been teaching us, and she's his wife, which means we've been in the presence of royalty the past several months!"

Kuzzey shook his head in disbelief and took a step back.

"No way . . . y-you mean that we've been . . . ?!" Kuzzey bowed at the waist in a panic. "I'm so sorry! Please don't do anything to us!"

Alex sighed and shook his head at the group's reactions.

"Relax, all of you. I'm impressed Miriallia. Marisa said you were sharp and quick on the uptake, but you've impressed me. You've watched past news conferences my Father had with Representative Atha haven't you?"

"Yes Your Highness."

Alex winced and waved a dismissive hand at her.

"Please, Alexsander, or Alex is just fine. I get the 'Your Highness' treatment so much from my subordinates and the citizenry of Romania it makes me wanna die. Likewise, don't call Marisa that either, she hates it more than I do."

The teens glanced at each other with a bit of bewilderment at the relaxed nature of the Romanian heir. A concerned expression made its way across Kira's face.

"What are you doing here Alexsander? You and Marisa are Romanian royalty. Why are you helping Earth Forces soldiers?"

The man motioned over to the Strike and took a seat on the concrete.

"To answer your question Kira, we were here to monitor the G-Weapon project. However, ZAFT made their move before we could in order to take the G-Weapons."

"So you knew that the Earth Alliance was here yet said reported nothing to the government of Orb? You're neutral like us!!"

"We are _not_ neutral like Orb. Orb declares neutrality and isolates itself from the world. Romania has remained neutral and has come to the aid of countless suffering lives that are afflicted by the war regardless of their ethnic background or allegiance. We've struck out at both the EA and ZAFT alike. We do not push our beliefs on others, but we will not leave those to suffer the aftershock of battle after battle when we have the power to step in and help those in need."

Miriallia and Tolle stood astounded by his firm tone and conviction. The two of them could understand where he was coming from. Kira frowned.

"But you're fighting in this war aren't you?! You're shedding more blood! How's that supposed to help the world?!"

Alex smirked and pitted Kira with a wicked glare. Everyone suddenly realized why the royalty of Romania had garnered a reputation for their trademark piercing auras. The man radiated a presence that seemed to draw them into his world.

"You're talking as if this world was black and white, good and evil. Yes, there is good and there is evil. But did I ever say that I was the good guy? We fight and bleed and die. We commit evil in the hope that we put an end to even greater evils. That by frugally shedding blood we end the fighting quickly so that there may ultimately be less death than what could occur by a long drawn out struggle of attrition that this war has been stuck in for the past several months. _That_, Kira Yamato . . . is what the Kingdom of Romania stands on!"

The group didn't know what to say about that. He didn't claim any moral high ground, he didn't force his beliefs on them, nor did he point fingers at who was right and who was wrong in the war. He merely fought to end the fighting and those who would prolong it. To Kira, it struck a sour tone, however, with everything that was happening, he didn't really have any means to refute him. Alex looked slightly weary and sighed heavily.

"Listen. For now, let's save the philosophical discussion for later. I need all of you to help here for now."

A pained groan came from Murrue Ramius as she regained consciousness. The woman slowly sat upright to gain her bearings. Sophia placed a steadying hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Murrue. Are you alright?"

Coming to her senses, she realized three things. That the Strike was in one piece, she was alive, and that there were a bunch of teenage civilians standing around it. As she drew the pistol by her side and pointed it at them, a man with a sub machine gun stepped between her and the group of the students.

"Sophia, what's going on?"

"You can lower the pistol Murrue, we're okay for now. That boy saved your life, not to mention driving off a GINN."

"That isn't the point Sophia! Who's this?"

Sophia sighed and looked to the man in question with a slightly apologetic expression. The gesture confused her. Just who was this person?

"Believe it or not Murrue, the Immortal of Romania has been here on Heliopolis keeping an eye out of the whole project we've been working on. Though exactly why I have no idea."

Murrue practically dropper her firearm and stared at Alex like some kind of specter.

"The Immortal? Here?! But the Indestructible Fleet disappeared after Endymion! Have you been here the entire time?!"

Alex merely nodded and grunted in acknowledgement.

"Kira, could you and the others go over to the hangar marked number 23-L and bring the other parts to the Strike? My men are standing by, but I'd rather have the Strike with a little more than just vulcans and knives." Seeing the apprehension in their eyes, he fully turned to them and took a commanding stance though his expression was somewhat sympathetic. "I know you don't like the thought of getting too deep, but the truth of the matter is that this is life or death. Please, for everyone's sakes."

Sai and Tolle nodded and were the first to go as they dragged Kuzzey behind them. Mir tugged Kira's sleeve and the boy reluctantly headed off to help his friends. Alex nodded slightly in approval.

'_It's good to see that Tolle and Sai understand the need for mutual survival when the chips are down. Kira seemed to want to protest that though. This could be good and bad depending on how things turn out.'_

Tapping his communications unit, Alex brought up the _Stiletto._

"This is Prince. Come in Fortress One."

"_Prince, this is Fortress One. Good to hear from you again Your Highness."_

"Current position of Allen Sanders?"

There was a momentary pause on the other end of the line. Elenore Baker's voice came from the receiver.

"_He's taking a more discreet route to you. He wasn't sure if you wanted him to broadcast the Valkyrie quite yet. ETA five minutes."_

Nodding, Alex simply double clicked before cutting off the comm.. Turning, he took a seat on the bench beside Murrue. Resting the sub machine gun on his lap, he sighed and looked back and forth at the destruction that now occupied the colony.

From her place, Murrue stood and gestured for Sophia to join her as they walked just a little distance from him. Keeping her voice to a decent whisper, she looked at Sophia with some concern.

"Sophia, just what is Alexsander the Immortal doing here on Heliopolis? His fleet disappeared after Endymion."

Sophia shook her head and flailed an arm.

"How should I know Murrue? They're obviously acting completely independent, with only their nation to back them. Since he wasn't surprised about the Strike, much less the other G-Weapons, I assume he's known about the project for quite awhile. If I didn't know better, he probably was going to pull a far less violent raid on us if ZAFT hadn't shown up."

Both Lieutenants looked back over to Alex slightly unnerved.

'_Well, it wouldn't surprise me when Sophia puts it that way. The man obviously has a group here working for him. How did he know about the whole project though?'_

Walking back over, Murrue stepped in front of Alex in order to draw his attention. Looking up from his reverie to meet her eyes, he nodded once.

"Yes Miss Ramius?"

"Commander, how did you know about the G-Weapon project? Not even the vast majority of the rest of the Earth Alliance even know about it."

Slowly standing up to stretch his legs, he observed Kira and the others bringing up the Launcher Pack from its hangar. He had to give them a healthy measure of credit, for such young kids with no experience with such hardware, they were doing just fine.

"We have our contacts Miss Ramius. I can assure you however, that if you and the rest of the crew aren't anything like the rest of the EA, we'll get along just fine. Right now though, we need to concentrate on making it out of this situation alive and in one piece."

Walking over to the Strike, Alex began helping them fit the parts to the Strike with the crane machines and other engineering equipment. Sophia came up beside her friend and sighed. A large part of her was relieved to have such experienced veteran with them, yet his motives worried her. At the moment, she completely agreed with the ace.

'_We need to get through this first before or else we'll never find out what Romania's up to.'_

Placing a hand on Murrue's shoulder, she nodded firmly when the brunette woman looked her way. Sophia jogged over to help give them a hand on the Strike. Murrue frowned as she watched the group work on the G-Weapon. A large part of her was grateful to have even uneasy allies given the circumstances, but getting the teenagers involved was something that didn't leave a good taste in her mouth.

"I understand his logic, but is it really okay for them to be helping us?"

Little did she know just how much help they would really become in the future.

* * *

_**GAT-X 107 Wildflower**_

_**Outside Heliopolis**_

_**

* * *

**_

"It's kind of scary how these machines carry so much firepower."

Shiho Hahnenfuss was returning to the Vesalius with the G-Weapon she had commandeered. On her way back, she had gone about tampering with the weapons OS in addition to studying its layout while getting a summary of its overall specifications. The machine appeared much like the one that Yzak had stolen, though there were significant differences in the two in terms of armaments.

"Two anti-armor combat knives, a high powered beam rifle, one anti-beam shield, 75mm vulcan guns in the head unit, and . . . hello . . . what's this?" Bringing up the unit's special weapon, Shiho's eyes grew wide in amazement. "Whoever made this machine really knows their stuff for a Natural. Hahah," she couldn't help but give a small laugh. The image was of a high frequency double edged sword with an elaborate cross guard held in a magnetic sheath across the back. The name of the weapon made her feel that this was more than just coincidence. The GWA-008/SB Balsam.

Typing across her OS modifications, she made special notes on the HFS. Continuing to feverishly program, she finished just before arriving on the _Vesalius_. Shutting down the Wildflower, she stepped out in time to see Athrun getting out of the Aegis.

"Athrun." The young man turned to face her with slightly tired emerald eyes. Taking note of his posture, she had seen it before. Something didn't go as planned and he had witnessed something that had rattled him deep inside. It wasn't the first time and it certainly wouldn't be the last time that she would see such a thing. "Athrun, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"We lost Rusty."

Shiho paused a moment before sighing. Rusty had been a kind of glue for the unit much like Alicia Sharpe was for the Gray Demons when Shiho had been with them. A strong premonition that they were in for some very emotional and tough times in spite of their current success crossed her mind.

Looking around the launch area, she mentally noted that they did not have all of the G-Weapons. Piecing things together, she surmised that the last G-Weapon that they'd tried to obtain had been the one that Rusty had failed to capture. Walking over to Athrun, she placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring shake.

"We all knew the risks. Be glad we didn't lose more of our team."

Athrun nodded numbly as they made their way back to the lounge. True, Rusty's death had shocked him, but that didn't compare to the shock of seeing his best friend Kira Yamato in the middle of that chaos on the Strike.

'_Kira . . . was that really you?'_

Entering the lounge area, the rest of the team turned their heads in their direction. Nodding quietly, they walked over to a set of free chairs and took a seat. Somewhere in her mind something just wasn't adding up. With the exception of Rusty's death, they had pulled off a flawless mission. When she had been serving with the Gray Demons, they all held on to the belief that if the mission went too easy, then something was sorely wrong. Glancing over the room, she noticed that Nicole Amalfi was reading over something on the terminals while Dearka Elsman skimmed through a piloting magazine. Yzak Joule, the resident hothead of the bunch turned to face them with a stern, impatient look.

"What took you so long Athrun?!"

"Rusty got killed before he could make it to his target."

The group turned to face Athrun as a single entity with the exception of Shiho. Yzak got up and rushed the green eyed ZAFT red and grabbed his collar. Shaking him violently, Athrun shook and bobbed limply.

"How the hell did you let that happen?!"

"Yzak! If Athrun could've helped him he would have! We all knew the risks of the mission."

The silver haired youth turned to glare at Dearka when Shiho stepped forward.

"Enough all of you! It's understandable to feel this way when we lose a teammate and friend, but Dearka's right. Right now, we need to focus on the what we need to do next. There's still a G-Weapon out there. Where's Commander Crueset?"

The way she fairly spat the name, the team knew she didn't like the man. They didn't know the reason why though. She kept her katana in her quarters and kept quiet about her involvement with the Gray Demons at Kenneth's order. How he had found out about her transfer from the ZGMF project to the Le Crueset team's mission was anyone's guess, but if he told her to keep relatively low, then she would do just that. One of the first things she had learned while flying with the Demons was that you didn't need to know the reasons all the time. If Falcon had faith in her for whatever it was, then she would do the same.

"The Commander deployed shortly before you and Athrun got back. I don't know why he deployed, but he might get the last G-Weapon for us."

Nicole was only half joking when he said those words, but Rau Le Crueset was not too far from the truth.

* * *

_**Heliopolis **_

_**Interior**_

_**

* * *

**_

"Damn you Rau!" Mu La Flaga cursed Rau's luck as he dodged another one of the few linear gun shots he loosed at the white CGUE. "Anymore and I might seriously jeopardize the colony."

A flash of green made him flinch; they were almost to the main interior.

Inside, the dual missile pod of the Launcher Strike locked into place as the group of teens and soldiers wrapped up the last touches on the Mobile Suit. Alex stood on the shoulder unit and wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. Taking the opportunity to carefully look at the man, Kira bit his lip. The heir of Romania looked like he was waiting for something to happen. He didn't understand how he could live the way he said his country did, but the man's eyes held a deep resolve that told him that Alex was determined to see everything through. Movement to his left made him turn in time to see Sophia carefully make her way around the head unit.

"Alexsander."

"Alex is fine . . . Victorian Kestrel."

Sophia stopped dead in her thoughts and stared. The man turned and smirked as he took a seat on the shoulder with a leg dangling over the edge.

"Your call name in a fighter isn't unknown to us Lieutenant DiFalco. You had garnered quite a reputation during Carpentaria, the First Casablanca Sea Battle, the Battle at Suez, El Alamein, and of course . . . Victoria. Even I will praise you Sophia DiFalco, taking out four GINNs single handed in a F-7D Spearhead is extraordinary. Hell, surviving all of those battles in one is not something that about 85 percent of EA pilots can boast about. I wish I could've seen it with my own eyes. If you knew enough about space combat, I would've sent you a formal transfer to my squadron. I was surprised to hear your name earlier Lieutenant."

Sophia swallowed as she took a hesitant step forward.

"How far does your network reach?"

The man snorted in amusement.

"That's not something that I needed to really delve into to find out about. You forget that my wife was an Admiral in command of a fleet with very high clearances. For someone who garners a high reputation on the field of battle, if we wanted soldiers, we could get them with a little pencil pushing."

Sophia felt flattered and a bit unnerved at the same instant. Alex's squadron had tangled with ZAFT's Grimaldi Falcon and more or less had survived despite their losses. Then again though, she didn't know how she would have fit in. They had been a Moebius Zero unit and she knew her scores weren't high enough to effectively use the wired gun barrels.

"Thanks for the consideration, but I wouldn't have helped much. You piloted Zeros."

"The Zero is nothing special in and of itself. It's the pilots that make a machine deadly. It's the same for guns and any other weapon ever created. We are the ones that ultimately pull the trigger or swing the blade. Speaking of which, my offer stands Sophia DiFalco. You interested in joining my ranks? We've a new machine among our ranks that you'd feel much more comfortable with than a Mobile Suit."

Kira didn't understand much, but quickly gathered that Sophia was also an ace pilot in the Earth Alliance. Clearing his throat, the two pilots turned to him. DiFalco seemed slightly taken by surprise while Alex looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry Kira, I tend to get on rabbit trails with fellow pilots. What's on your mind?"

"You said Romania does what they can in order to help those suffering, then what about this? Heliopolis is like your nation, at least in its stance of neutrality. So what are you going to do?"

Sighing, Alex looked back out at the heavily damaged colony.

"Assuming the colony survives this attack, Romania will take in whatever refugees desire to enter its borders. My Father will do what he can, but it ultimately falls to Uzumi Nara Atha to allow us to assist." A beeping at his waist drew the man's attention. "Hold on a moment. Alexsander here."

"_Your Highness, I'm just about to the interior of the colony. Where are you?"_

"I'm sitting on the Strike on the east side of the port sector. ETA?"

"_Four minutes. Allen out."_

Shutting off his device, Alex nodded to himself. Turning to face Kira with a question of his own, the group jerked in surprise and panic when an explosion not too far away and above them ruptured the colony. Out of the smoke and debris a single white CGUE shot out with an orange Mobile Armor hot on its tail. Alex and Sophia blanched as Murrue ran to the base of the Strike.

"Sophia! Alex! This isn't good!"

'_You're telling us?!'_

As everyone began to scramble around to respond to the situation, Mu La Flaga mentally slapped himself. He noticed the Strike almost instantly in addition to its Launcher Pack. Flecks of movement told him that people where on and around it, though he didn't know just who it was. The one thing he was grateful for was the space. Deploying his gun barrels, he unleashed a furious barrage of fire at the suit before him.

Inside his cockpit, Rau had also noticed the final Mobile Suit. Allowing himself a smirk, he noted the people scurrying around on the ground around it. Noticing the deployment of Mu's favorite weapons, he threw his craft into a series of evasive maneuvers that would make most people sick. Catching what he couldn't evade with his gatling shield, he shot toward the Strike.

Alex cursed in ancient Romanian as the CGUE flipped and skimmed by Mu's shots and began to make a bee line toward them. Sai, Mir, Tolle, and the rest of the teens ran from the Strike as Murrue grit her teeth. As he and Sophia looked at each other with the same thing in mind, they turned to find Kira gone from the shoulder. Looking around, the two of them couldn't find him and didn't see him with his friends. As Sophia began to ask where he was, the Strike lurched into action with them on it. The two aces crouched and latched onto whatever safe surface of the suit they could. Jumping off was out of the question as the sixteen meter fall would break their legs if they did so. The idea of being stepped on didn't appeal to either of them.

"Kira?! Kira what are you doing?!"

The Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon locked into firing position as Sophia's answer and the three soldiers gaped. Murrue sprinted away the moment she realized just what the kid was recklessly attempting to do. Sophia had seen the blueprints for the weapon, but never had seen the tests. Alex understood the implications of firing it regardless of a hit or miss and slapped himself in the face before grabbing Sophia and pinning her under him as he went prone on the shoulder. Flustered and startled, Sophia struggled for a moment.

"Alex! What in the world?!"

"Kira's firing the Agni! That idiot, this close, the shockwave could blow us both off the Strike and who knows where! Hold on!"

Cursing her luck for the enth time that day, she grit her teeth and prayed that Alex was in incredible shape as they gripped what few holds they could find on the G-Weapon. The Agni whined just before the 320mm cannon unleashed its massive energy beam. Sophia screamed as they were buffeted about like dolls. Alex winced as he dug into the crevasses of the gun launcher shoulder attachment trying to keep them glued to the machine. Alex hollered at the top of his lungs.

"If he doesn't hit that CGUE or scare the hell out of it we are in so much trouble! Allen hurry it up!!"

On the ground Murrue looked on, appalled as the shot grazed the ZAFT machine and punched a hole in the colony wall before dying out. Dropping to her knees, she began to realize just exactly how powerful the machine was.

"This is a disaster."

Inside the Strike, Kira swallowed and released his grip from the controls.

"What have I . . . ?"

Rau actually felt a large measure of shock and for the first time in a long time in the war, a measure of worry.

"How can a Mobile Suit possess that much firepower?!"

Mu La Flaga was flabbergasted. The shot had taken off an arm and leg from Rau's machine and punched a hole through the colony wall like a bullet through paper. For once, he couldn't take advantage of an opponent's opening to strike. Fortunately, two things occurred in rapid succession that snapped everyone from their shock and made the masked ace of ZAFT really begin to worry.

From a short distance away the _Archangel _burst forth from inside the colony dock in all her majesty. Four seconds later, as if to answer a heavenly call, another explosion ruptured the inner wall to reveal the Romanian Armor Masters VFS-01 Valkyrie.

* * *

**The situation in Heliopolis is coming to a boil and is beginning to overflow from the brim. Alex is pushing and prodding Sophia DiFalco to join the Wolfe Squadron. What fireworks will fly when Valkyries bear their swords on the battlefield? Prepare yourselves, the war is rising to a new level.**

**Read and Review!**

**Reis Nailo**


	5. Chapter 5

** Gundam Seed: Wolves of War**

**Disclaimer: GS isn't mine and Solid Shark is the creator of Kenneth DiFalco and the Gray Demons in addition of Sophia DiFalco. We are in correspondence with each other for this story and they are being used with his permission.**

**Chapter 4: The Curtain Rises**

The _Archangel _burst through the colony interior and into full view. On the bridge, Natarle Badgiruel narrowed her eyes at the situation. Her voice was crisp and clear cut.

"Status report!"

From his post in the bridge, Petty Officer Jackie Tonomura swiftly analyzed the scene before reporting.

"Morgenroete's been destroyed." Taking another second to survey the area, he continued. "I have confirmation on the Strike . . . it's operating and engaged in combat!"

The black haired woman growled in her seat, this just was getting worse and worse by the minute. After she had finally managed to round up the remaining survivors of the _Archangel_, their two current civilian passengers had revealed themselves and insisted boarding with them. Given the circumstances, Natarle made a very rare exception given that she'd rather not leave them to die. The other one was that the taller of the two with red hair was carrying a sword with the crest of Romania on the hilt. Grousing a bit, the Ensign looked over her shoulder at the two women.

_'What's with her? Is she some kind of VIP? That red head is acting awfully considerate of that woman. The fact that she's carrying a Romanian military sword isn't helping me much. I'd hate to make a wrong move and have that nation come back to haunt me.'_

The woman in the business suit had sharp, intelligent eyes with a depth to them that she'd only seen in the most experienced veterans. Her slightly short stature was offset by her aura of confidence and calm collection. Not to mention the pistol she wore in a shoulder holster. Tonomura called out from his station.

"We've got a CGUE and a Moebius Zero out there."

"That's the Hawk of Endymion. I want missiles on that CGUE, but do not hit the colony. That's an order."

Before Petty Officer Dalida Chandra could follow through Tonomura spoke out again with a bit of confusion in his voice.

"Ma'am, there's another machine breaking through the colony interior . . . what the heck? A fighter?!"

"Not just any fighter Petty Officer. That is a Romanian Valkyrie. Belay those weapon orders Mister Chandra. Just watch. Between Mu La Flaga, the Strike, a Valkyrie, and the _Archangel_, I seriously doubt that CGUE can threaten anyone too seriously."

Natarle turned in her seat with a suspicious gaze.

"So you are with Romania. Who are you and how much do you know?"

Rachelle took a firm step forward and glared at the Ensign. An inch and a half of the blade left the sheath with an eerie rasping sound.

"Stand down Ensign. Just trust her. Your answers will come in due time, but now is not the time for it."

Natarle glared back and clenched a fist. None of them had any weaponry on the bridge and now she was regretting not stopping by the armory for a handgun. Marisa walked over to Tonomura's station and smiled pleasantly.

"Mister Chandra, please change over to frequency Lambda Epsilon 042mhz."

"Uh . . . okay." Something about her tone and posture despite her smile, made him think that not doing so was a bad idea. "Switching over."

"Thank you. Do you read me Valkyrie?"

_"Wolfe 3 reporting. I read you loud and clear. Requesting priority orders ma'am."_

Before she could answer him, a new voice entered the bridge.

_"Wolfe 3, Prince here. Priority One on CGUE. Take him out if you can. Mode 2 and 3 are restricted."_

_"Wolfe 3 copies. Engaging."_

The fighter's exhaust ports flared bright violet and white as the machine shot toward the ZAFT Mobile Suit. Rau shook himself from his temporary stupor and brought up his 76mm machine gun. Trying to target the craft, he grit his teeth.

"What's with that machine? It's faster than anything we've seen before." Firing a burst of lead at the incoming Mitternacht Wolfe, Allen put the fighter in an intricate aerial roll, skimming the first initial shots before barrel rolling around the rest as he dove at Rau with a string of bright neon blue machine gun tracers from the 25mm high speed machine guns.

_"Mu La Flaga, care to join the fray?"_

Mu snapped back into focus and resumed his attack. He didn't quite know just who or what the new machine was, but since it was eagerly seeking the same opponent he was, then who was he to complain? As Mu deployed his gun barrels, Rau knew he was in real trouble.

"La Flaga I can deal with, but this new machine and that legged ship are too risky even for me. Time to make a retreat."

Weaving in and out of the fire that Allen and Mu let loose into the air. Several shots clipped rigging and scaffolding, but thankfully avoided the main support column. Alex carefully watched the three go at it and as Rau began to get close the damaged section of the colony, he opened up his comm..

"Wolfe 3, break off, let him go. It's too risky to chase him out there. Tell Mu to do the same."

_"Roger."_

The plane suddenly swerved into a deep and hard 9G turn back toward the _Archangel. _Mu changed his trajectory a fraction of a second later and formed up on the advanced fighter. Allen scanned the _Archangel _for a moment before radioing his superiors. Both Marisa on the legged ship and Alex on the Strike paused for a moment hearing his inquiry.

_"This is Wolfe 3, where should I land? Unless you lift restrictions on Mode 2, I can't land on the _Archangel. _Waiting your order."_

After a minute of silence from both of them, Marisa spoke, drawing wide eyed looks from the crew on the bridge.

"This is Marisa, _Stiletto_ you are cleared for launch. Wolfe 3, land on board once Fortress One is clear over."

Natarle and all the others on board stared at the woman. The Admiral of the Romanian Fleet was so much different than what everyone's preconception of her was. Marisa stood at a mere five foot, six inches with long chestnut brown hair down to her shoulder blades that accented amber eyes. Those golden eyes now held a hard glint in them that showed them a woman in command mode.

_"This is Helmsman Ritcher Occan. Understood. _Stiletto, _launching."_

The colony rumbled before across from the OMNI Enforcer, the refitted flagship of Romania burst forth from the innards of the space installation. Those who had never seen the ship before could only behold her as she slowly approached them. Stopping little more than two hundred meters from each other, the ship maintained its altitude for a minute or two before gently landing; knocking over the rubble left of the installation it hovered over. Natarle quickly recovered her wits as she ordered the _Archangel _to land as well.

"Well, that went a bit better than I had feared, though it also could have gone exceedingly better. Damn ZAFT, they actually did well sniffing this out so quickly."

Mu La Flaga flew a support position to the Valkyrie and stared at the new _Stiletto_. He was impressed with the command ship before, and now wasn't any different. In fact, the vessel looked more aggressive now than it did in the past. It was a change that Mu thought hard about.

"That ship was always defensive, despite its weapons. Does this mean that Romania's preparing to strike back in earnest?"

The ship looked longer than it normally did in the past during battles prior to Endymion. He attributed that to what appeared to be a massive ramming blade on the front of the ship. The vessel also seemed to have been widened by a decent margin, though the vessel was still slimmer than the _Archangel_. Instead of the two massive twin barreled high energy cannons, there were now a pair of triple barreled guns of slightly slimmer design. The flanking double barreled guns surprised Mu. He had never seen such weaponry before on a ship and noticed that they were very similar to the triple barrel guns, but they were only about two-thirds the size of the larger guns. All of the clusters surrounding the bridge area and under her on the belly of the ship made him think of defensive emplacements. The ship bristled with weapons like an armored porcupine.

_"Hawk of Endymion. Allen Sanders here. I strongly advise landing on or around the _Archangel_ and meeting the Commander on foot. There's a lot to clear up and very little time to do it in. It's a pleasure to fly with you again La Flaga."_

"Understood Allen. I've got a lot of questions, but that can wait for latter. See you on the ground."

A simple double-click answered him before the Valkyrie broke sharply toward its home dock. The incoming landing hatch slid open, surprising him as the fighter flew the fighter straight into the top of the bow, disappearing completely as the opening slid back shut.

"A separate landing and launching bay? That means that they can launch and land at will. Talk about being expeditious. I knew that they were out here somewhere in hiding, but never this close. Well, the lighthouse is always darkest at its base."

Mu veered his Zero back toward the legged ship and landed nearby its starboard launch bay "leg". Not too far away, he could see the Strike with several people around it. Tucking his helmet under his arm, he jogged over to see a small cluster of individuals approach from the _Archangel_. The small contingent from the Romanian ship also converged on the Strike.

The man paused a moment when he saw those from the _Stiletto_. Each of the people with pilot suits on also carried a Romanian military long sword. Even more strange was the small contingent of teenagers who stood behind the attractive Murrue Ramius. Saluting crisply, Mu raised his voice to a formal introduction.

"Lieutenant Mu La Flaga reporting. My ship was sunk early in the fighting. Request permission to come aboard."

After returning salutes and acknowledging each others' presence, Natarle removed her hat and covered her heart with a grave expression on her face.

"The Captain and the majority of the crew died in the first assault. We're the only officers left. Leiutenant Ramius, you're in command."

Murrue jerked in shock. Alex sighed and shook his head as he took a seat on the Strike's foot. Sophia stared at her friend, even for her, this was too much. In the back of her mind, she knew that asking Alex for assistance may be too much of a risk given their obvious break away from the EA.

"The Captain and all of the others are dead? That can't be."

Mu scratched the back of his head and grunted in annoyance. Things just kept getting worse and worse.

"What a catastrophe. Well regardless Lieutenant Ramius, please grant me permission."

Only breaking out of her stupor by a margin, she nodded.

"Yes, welcome aboard Lieutenant."

Murdoch spoke up after the formal transition was finished.

"Who piloted the Strike? We didn't expect to keep any of the G-Weapons after all this mess."

The group who was in the know hesitated as Alex turned grim. Mu caught the look and got worried.

"Don't tell me it was you Commander." The dark smirk and cocked eyebrow told him that things weren't what they seemed to him.

"Hawk of Endymion. Mu La Flaga, we're glad to see you made it out of Endymion in one piece. However, I am not the one who took the controls. Kira, get down here."

The hatch opened and everyone from the legged ship stared. The Wolfe squadron swallowed. Alex had informed them about Kira Yamato and his anxieties about the boy, but now that he'd piloted an MS, they were really worried.

"This kid did it? He can't even shave yet!"

Murrue gave the boy a slight nod.

"He fought off a ZAFT GINN."

"He very nearly squished us."

Murrue and Kira blinked in confusion and Sophia wore a slight grimace at the memory. She had to thank Alex again when the appropriate opportunity presented itself. Right now was not the time. Mu La Flaga approached the boy before anyone could say anything and looked him closely in the eyes.

"You're a Coordinator aren't ya kid?"

The question made everyone tense, some for one reason and the rest for others. Kuzzey and Sai were shocked at the question. Tolle and Mir grew grim. They knew Kira's background a bit and didn't care about his being a Coordinator, their friendship was stronger than that.

"Yes, but I'm First Generation."

The group of soldiers of the EA raised weapons out of reflex. Alex shot up from his place and in front of him faster than Tolle and Mir could. The sounds of swords leaving sheaths made Sophia and Murrue's guts go cold. Rachelle, Evan, Allen, and Jessica had drawn their weapons. Things wouldn't have been quite as tense if Rachelle wasn't already among the EA soldiers. Marisa drew her pistol and clicked off the safety and held her calmly at her side.

"All of you stand down. He is a student of engineering, not a ZAFT pilot. Raise your weapons against a civvie and we will not show you mercy."

The groups remained tense and Kira kept his voice low so only Alex could hear him. Mir and Tolle caught the conversation between them as they were standing just beside their friend.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Despite your reckless stunt with the Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon, you saved several lives. The least I can do is stand up for you. As I said Kira Yamato, Romania helps those caught in the struggles and wars of others. This is no different from any other caught in the crossfire. If we can keep innocent third parties from being drug into the conflicts, then we will."

Kira slowly nodded as he began to understand the man's words. A small part of his philosophy still bothered him, but he had to respect him a bit for what he was doing now. Miriallia smiled and gave him a small, silent "Thank you" as Tolle nodded his own thanks. Mu scratched the back of his head and sighed uneasily.

"Your parents were Naturals. I know what that means. Sorry, I was just curious."

Alex pitted his compatriot with a stoic glance.

"Your curiosity could've have gotten people killed Mu. I knew you were a bit more lax than others, but still." Mu had enough sense to look apologetic. "I can't blame you for the question Mu, but the situation could have been better my friend."

"True enough. Sorry Kira. Really, I mean it. Thanks for your help; it means a lot to us. Blast it all, now the real question is what to do from here on out?"

Murrue shrugged and looked over to the _Archangel _with a concerned face. Turning to face the rest of those present, she took as much of an authoritative stance as she could muster under the circumstances.

"All surviving crew board the _Archangel_. Commander Alexsander, Admiral Marisa, would you please join us? I'd feel more comfortable with you explaining things to me."

Marisa and Alex glanced at one another with silent conversation between their eyes. Closing his eyes, the man nodded once before taking a step forward and offering his hand.

"Very well Lieutenant Ramius, we'll come aboard briefly and explain the situation. Depending on how you and your crew react to it, we may even assist you and the legged ship get to safe haven."

"Hold it."

Natarle Badgiruel held a solid gaze that gave the teens a chilly feeling. Alex knew the look from his time in the Academy. Giving her a stoic look, he waited for her to speak.

"It goes against regulations to let those students on the ship."

Marisa sighed and shook her head in annoyance.

"Ensign Badgiruel. I respect your concerns for maintaining military regulations, but this is a true emergency situation. Until this crisis is under control please allow them aboard. The shelters are locked down and there is nowhere to take them."

"You aren't Earth Forces anymore." Her curt tone angered Rachelle and the other pilots, prompting them to ready their blades in warning. Alex's hand waved them off and the pilots grudgingly followed their immediate superior's order. The man sighed and gave Natarle a calm, cold stare. Natarle grit her teeth, she knew looks like that; gauging, penetrating stares that tried to stare into a person's soul. Returning one of her own, she held a bold front. The smirk that broke into a humored grin only served to make things more tense.

"You have a lot of guts Ensign, but guts mean nothing if you can't follow through. True, you have valid points all around, yet there are so many, many holes in those points. The books are more like . . . hm, how to put it . . . guidelines. How about a compromise?" Marisa chuckled silently and shook her head as his Wolfe squadron put away their blades and simply waited to hear him out. "Since we are not EA any longer, then the teens will be under Romania's care . . . _however_ . . . they must accompany either me or Marisa and when they are alone their actions are extensions of our own. Is that fair enough Ensign? Or shall we debate until Rau returns and blows us to kingdom come?"

Mu and Sophia had terse expressions on their faces as they nodded silently with their fellow ace. Rau wouldn't wait to attack again for very long. Given their current status, if things got any worse, then it was highly likely that everyone might not make it out alive.

"Murrue, normally I wouldn't try to circumvent the system, but Alexsander's right. Rau won't wait long and if we aren't ready even just a bit; then we might as well surrender now. I can't believe I just suggested that."

Murrue looked at Sophia with a strange look on her face. _'I've never seen her like this. She's an engineer, not a combat soldier so why's she getting so worked up?'_ Nodding slightly, she turned to face Natarle.

"I appreciate your concerns as well as the Wing Commander does, but he is right. This is an emergency situation and I will personally hold him to his word. We let them on board. Kira, I know I'm asking a lot from you, but could you move the Strike on board the ship?"

Kira went on the defensive and half glared at the woman.

"Why me?! They're aces aren't they? Why can't they take it and put it on the ship?"

Mu looked at Alex before the man gestured for him to do the honors.

"We may be aces Kira, but we don't know how to operate a Mobile Suit, much less one that you probably rewrote from the base up. I know that you didn't use that OS that we had been working on."

Kira fumbled with his thoughts. The tall blonde haired ace was right. He had gone and rewritten the entire OS from the ground up while fighting the GINN that had attempted to destroy them. Murrue looked at him with a bit of amazement now that she recalled witnessing it firsthand. Alex merely cast an expressionless gaze at the boy before waving Jessica over.

"What is it Your Highness?"

"You're creeping me out with that formality." Jessica smirked and shrugged as he continued. "I want you to take Evan and grab my Valkyrie and the spare and dock them on the _Archangel._" Dropping his voice to a whisper, he continued. "I want to keep an eye on Kira both for his sake and ours. Tell the others to remain with the _Stiletto_. I want her protected in case something goes horribly wrong here."

"Yes sir. Is the spare for La Flaga?" When he shook his head, she frowned. "Are you that worried you'll be that damaged? We can bring over additional spare parts. It's not like their hangar's going to be bursting at the seams right now anyway."

"Hm, yes, do that, but I still want the extra. Not for me, for her." He discreetly canted his head in the direction of Sophia DiFalco, who was becoming frustrated with both Natarle and Murrue as they argued rules and regulations. Jessica's brow went up.

"Oh?"

"She's the Grimaldi Falcon's sister though she doesn't realize it herself. That is Sophia DiFalco, the Victorian Kestrel."

Jessica had to stifle her gasp. She stared at the dark haired woman with green eyes with a different light in her eyes. Nodding again, she wasted no more time in jogging over to the rest of her squad mates and motioning to their home ship. As they hustled away, Kuzzey nudged Tolle.

"Hey Tolle, they're supposed to be Romania's heirs right?" When Tolle nodded Kuzzey continued. "They just don't act like it. I mean, aren't they supposed to have some kind of guards or something?"

Tolle looked at the _Stiletto _and sighed. Jabbing his thumb in the ship's direction, he cocked an eyebrow at his friend.

"You think a battleship isn't guard enough Kuzzey? Those guys had swords too Kuzzey, that screams 'guards' to me."

Mir shouted out to the two as Kira began to board the Strike. Hustling to follow them toward the white ship, Tolle felt a bit of anxiety finally beginning to creep into his gut. So much was happening so fast, it was hard to comprehend it all. Looking beyond Mir and the others to look at Marisa and Alexsander, the woman stayed close to his side. The two royals watched the Strike go by with the most intense looks he'd ever seen on anyone. Catching up with Mir, he nudged her gently to get her attention.

"What is it Tolle?"

Keeping his voice low, he canted his head toward the Tepes couple.

"Something is really making me nervous about those two. They gave that Mobile Suit the harshest glare I've ever seen out of anybody."

Mir quirked her brows at her boyfriend and stared at him for a bit as they kept pace with everyone else.

"Well, the Earth Alliance is desperate as they've said. Anyone with any sort of sense would be right to worry about something this powerful." The vigorous negative head shake he gave her made her pause for a moment. The light bulb that went off in her head made her gasp and lower her voice. "You think it's Kira that they're worried about?!"

"Unfortunately it is Mir. Think about it. Kira just flew it and took down that ZAFT Mobile Suit. I'm pretty sure that Alex isn't someone to think that Kira's a bad person, but they apparently knew about this whole thing with that ship and its suits. They're military and probably can figure out how to use them, but Kira's had no sort of training. I'd be worried if I was in their shoes – not that I want to be."

Mir turned her thoughts to the Romanians in front of them and carefully looked at them. Marisa held a concerned expression as she whispered to her husband. Alex's expression remained stoic, but she could see a distant fire in his eyes that didn't feel friendly. The man looked a bit tense when he looked at the Strike, which was waiting for the launch bay to open on the _Archangel_.

_'Tolle, I hope you're wrong about this. But I don't think that they'd purposefully do anything to Kira that would hurt him. He stood up to defend him before Tolle and I could, and he doesn't even know Kira . . . or does he know something about Kira?'_

The brunette girl could only worry and mull in her thoughts as they boarded what would be their home for longer than any of them could imagine.

* * *

**_Vesalius Briefing Room

* * *

_**

The Crueset Team filed into the missions briefing room. Shiho had spent most of her time in the G-Weapon she'd acquired, balancing out its systems and studying its parameters. The rest of the team had simply been standing by in the pilot's lounge. When everyone had received word about the damage to the Commander's CGUE, the group had been throwing around possibilities. Rau cleared his throat in order to quiet everyone.

"Everyone, we have a new situation I want to go over with each of you. This is very vital information . . . so much so that it completely changes the objectives we were originally assigned."

Images of the Strike with the Launcher Pack equipped appeared on the screen. Miguel, who had been picked up by one of the extraction teams, seethed. The video of the Agni being fired made the group swallow. The power of the suit was incredible.

"This is the last G-Weapon that we failed to acquire. As you can see, its firepower is immense. However, this suit alone is not the only new factor to take into account. We also have the legged ship to keep in mind now."

Images of the _Archangel_ presented themselves. The size and shape of the vessel made a few of the pilots lean forward.

"I don't quite know what to expect from a ship like this, but we will take it on with all due caution. The final factor is the real concern for all of us and possibly for the rest of this war."

Rau's grave tone made the group look back and forth at each other. When the final images played with Rau being engaged by a dark, near-black violet fighter that zoomed at him with unheard of speed and agility, Shiho froze to her seat. Nicole, who sat beside her noticed her stiffen and gave her a concerned look.

"Shiho, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Shaking herself from her shock, she smiled gently at Nicole and shook her head with a negative noise.

"It's nothing, just a past memory." She half lied. _'That color . . . only one squadron would dare paint their machines like that. Looks like the Immortal and his Wolves have made an extreme upgrade. I'd better send this to the Boss just to be safe.'_

Rau continued on.

"With these factors in play, we cannot risk capturing the final weapon. I want a squad to go back and destroy the legged ship and its Mobile Suit while we hold the advantage. Do I have any volunteers?"

Miguel Aimen swiftly raised his hand and stood from his chair. Matthew and Olor did the same a split second later. Everyone could understand their feelings. Matthew and Olor hadn't participated in the first assault and Miguel likely was hunting out some revenge. Rau merely nodded, dismissing them to let them prepare for the next sortie. As everyone filed out, Athrun remained behind. Rau noticed the boy's attitude and stopped in front of him.

"Athrun, is there something amiss?"

"I-It's a person I saw during the raid. I think I may know who it is, but I'm just not sure. He's a Coordinator like us." Rau nodded silently, taking it all in. Judging from his previous run in with the Strike, he began to fit pieces together and looked long and hard at the young man in front of him.

"Very well then Athrun, I want you to accompany the others with the new suit you've acquired. If my assumptions are correct and that truly is the Immortal and his Wolfe squadron, then they may be in for a far harsher fight than we'd anticipated."

"Yes sir." Athrun made a quick exit, not taking any time in order to see the small smirk on the masked ace's lips.

_'I do believe that those three won't last more than five minutes against such hardened veterans like the Wolfe Squadron, but a G-Weapon just may force his hand. Let's see how you handle this, Alexsander Wallachia Tepes.'

* * *

_

**_Archangel _**

**_Bridge

* * *

_**

Murrue Ramius slumped in the Captain's Chair. The other crewmembers of the legged ship sagged as well. Marisa and Alex had both laid down hard facts.

"You've been here, under our noses this whole time and studied all of the G-Weapons?"

Alex crossed his arms and looked poignantly at Sophia DiFalco.

"Not all of the units Lieutenant. DiFalco's machine went under our radar for the most part. I'm far more concerned about the pilot that now is at its controls. All that aside, Natarle, you're saying that the current crew is _all _that is left?"

Natarle nodded and Alex groaned before rubbing his face with his hands. It seemed as if he was trying to wipe away years of fatigue to no avail. Marisa put a hand to her head like she was suffering from the worst migraine of her life. Mu took a step forward to get their attention.

"Hey Immortal." Alex gave him a strange look, making Mu reword things. "Alexsander, I know it's asking a lot, but do you think you can help us out? Yeah, you're not EA anymore, but even you have to admit that our odds of survival aren't good, in fact, they downright suck."

Turning to completely face his fellow pilot, Alex sighed.

"Actually Mu, I heavily doubt there is much I really can help you with. Battle experience and knowledge mean little with such a crippled ship and only one real means to fight. I can't pilot the Strike either, which renders me all but useless in the upcoming battle if they deploy G-Weapons."

Sophia swallowed as she understood what he was saying. Murrue wasn't quite as fast on the uptake.

"What do you mean Commander Tepes? You're squadron's machine is faster than anything we've seen."

When Alex looked between Sophia and Mu, Sophia took up the wordless invitation to explain.

"Murrue, I hate to say this, but his machines don't really have anything to combat Phase Shift. If the G-Weapons weren't a factor, we would have a huge advantage, but they have five of them."

Natarle stood from her seat in CIC with an expression of shock.

"You mean you've been watching us all this time and didn't make a beam weapon for your fighters? Then what was the point of making them?"

Marisa smiled and gave the Ensign a dark look.

"We didn't make them without the intention to. However, the fighters, due to their complete lack of Phase Shift, and a high energy battery like the G-Weapons, can't maintain a beam weapon. They're loaded with a plethora of other armaments that would make mincemeat out of nearly eighty percent of all other military weapons. We had planned on stealing the G-Weapons and the _Archangel _for ourselves, but ZAFT got the jump on us."

Mu nodded as he began to see the bigger picture that the Romanian's had in mind.

"You were making your units to support the G-Weapons." Alex nodded as Mu continued. "Since they aren't as maneuverable, but have a huge amount of firepower, you were going to use them as the main weapons while the Valkyries you created kept everything else at bay."

Alex smirked and pointed a finger gun at the man and acted like he'd just shot his compatriot.

"Bulls-eye. Quick on the uptake Mu. Though now, we'll have to think of an alternative in order to fight the very thing they were meant to protect."

Murrue crossed her arms in thought.

"So the only real option we've got right now is the Strike."

"Yes, but no one here can pilot it. Mu and I have armor experience, not Mobile Suit training, even in a simulator. Sophia obviously designs them, not flies them."

When curious looks from the Earth Alliance officers shifted her way, Marisa held her hands up defensively.

"Woah, I'm a Coordinator, but even I can't pilot one without training. Beside the point, I don't think anyone can handle the OS that Kira wrote on the fly. I'm decent by Coordinator standards at programming and other such things, but Kira's in a league all his own. If you want someone to fly the Strike, it'll be him. Go ask him for assistance."

Everyone looked at the floor at that. No one knew how to go about asking a teenage civilian prodigy to fight a war that he had no business in. Alex took an uncertain, deep breath that everyone but Marisa mistook for regret.

_'Do I really want to make him into a weapon, regardless of his allegiance? No, it's more along the lines of I no longer have a choice . . . all I can do is keep him on the right path. Though doing so just might be the end of me in the long run.'

* * *

_

**_Archangel _**

**_Crew Quarters

* * *

_**

Everyone sat in the same room while scattered among the bunks. The group was solemn and quiet. The events of the day finally beginning to sink into their minds in earnest. Kira was completely out of it, sleeping on one of the bunks like a log. Sai shook his head.

"How can he sleep like that?"

Mir sat beside Kira with a concerned expression. Tolle stood beside her with an equally worried look.

"He piloted that Mobile Suit in live combat and now all of this with the Earth Alliance, Romania, and ZAFT must have been too much for him. I can't imagine doing anything like that."

A knock at the door woke Kira and made everyone else look toward it as it slid open to reveal Murrue Ramius. Kira fairly glared daggers at the woman and the brunette woman mentally sighed.

_'Well, it isn't like the Tepes didn't warn us about this. Alex seemed especially concerned about it, though he adamantly refused to say why. I just hope their reasoning can convince him to pilot the Strike again.'_

"What do you want?"

Tolle's question was somewhat tired, but still had a bit of an edge in it. Mir stood from her place beside Kira and joined Tolle.

"I'm sorry. However, none of you are able to leave this ship. Not only have you been exposed to top secret military hardware, but there isn't likely any other place that you could go to."

Kuzzey frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sai Argyle winced and clenched a fist at the implications.

"That means that it's likely that all of the shelters are now in lock down after that last attack."

As the teens glumly took in the news, Murrue braced herself. She was wholly against making such a young person get involved, but with the circumstances being what they currently were, she didn't see any other alternatives if everyone wanted to survive.

"I hate to ask this of you Kira, but can you pilot the Strike for us again? You're the only person who can at the moment."

Kira inwardly seethed. "Why me?! You've got Alexsander and Mu. They're aces right?"

"Yes, but they aren't able to pilot the Strike with the OS you created for the machine. A Natural can't come close to handling it."

Mir held a hand to her chest as she spoke up.

"I don't want to lump everything on just them, but like Kira said, they're aces aren't they? They have those new machines as well."

"They are new machines, and they are impressive from what Alexsander has been willing to say about them, but they can't compete against a G-Weapon. The only way to battle one is with one."

"We don't want anything to do with your war!"

"It's a little late for that don't you think kid?" Mu La Flaga came into the room with little preamble. The tall pilot gave Kira a steeled gaze. "Whether you like it or not kid, you've been dunked into the chaos of the battlefields. Here, the enemy doesn't care whether or not you're interested in the war or not. You want to survive to leave this hell? You fight." Mu drew a step closer and dropped his voice so only Kira could hear him. "If you want to see your _friends_ make it out alive, you fight."

"What makes you think you have any right to say . . ." Kira's heated comeback died out when he saw Mu's eyes change. Looking to Murrue, he saw the same thing – loss, pain, and sacrifice. He swallowed his words, knowing that it was actually him being childish. They had lost friends, probably family, fighting a war that just seemed to keep getting worse with no end in sight. Alexsander's words returned to him at that moment.

_"You're talking as if this world was black and white, good and evil. Yes, there is good and there is evil. But did I ever say that I was the good guy? We fight and bleed and die. We commit evil in the hope that we put an end to even greater evils. That by frugally shedding blood we end the fighting quickly so that there may ultimately be less death than what could occur by a long drawn out struggle of attrition that this war has been stuck in for the past several months.__That__, Kira Yamato . . . is what the Kingdom of Romania stands on!"_

Shaking his head quietly, Kira began to better understand just what everyone fighting was really after at heart.

_'They're all fighting to end the suffering one way or another. I don't know about everyone else, but these people, Miss Murrue, Mu, Alexsander, and Marisa. They're all fighting to protect their loved ones and keep people from experiencing any more loss. I'm being so selfish. I'll fight for them, but only them. No one else. And only until everything settles down.'_

"Alright. I'll pilot the Strike. But only until we've escaped."

"That very well may be a long time Kira. One never easily escapes conflict, and never for very long. Regardless, thank you Kira Yamato." Alexsander Wallachia's voice was quiet and calm as he entered the doorway and gave him a small smile. "Now come with me and suit up. Rau's striking sooner than we'd anticipated."

As Kira exited with Alex and the others, Mir and Tolle stepped outside the room.

"Kira! Good luck . . . thank you. Please keep him safe Your Highness."

Alexsander was glad to be out in front of everyone. The cold, knife edged look in his eyes would have scared all of them senseless. Taking a calming breath, he stayed put, waving a hand over his shoulder.

"Very well Miriallia. Go to the cafeteria if you want to watch the fireworks. Two decks down and three rooms to the left from here."

The teens looked back and forth between each other for a moment as they disappeared around the corner of the central corridor. Kira continued to follow Alexsander and Mu when Murrue turned off in order to make it back up to the bridge. When they made it to the locker room for pilots, Alex began to suit up, as did Mu. Hunting the lockers, he somehow managed to find a blue-black pilot jumpsuit. Putting it on, he turned to see them waiting on him to finish.

"How do you guys do that so fast?"

The two men looked at each other with humored looks. "We're fighter jocks."

Alex proceeded to the hangar first.

"Time to meet the kids Mu." Kira and Mu wore confused faces until they entered to find two of the dark violet fighters in the hangar. One sat quietly in its berth while the other hummed, its engines revved and waiting for its master.

"Woah." Kira had never seen such a machine. The fighter was 17 meters long, nearly four meters tall with its landing gear, and had a wingspan of nineteen meters fully deployed. It was a huge fighter, but Kira thought it was crazy to fight Mobile Suits in something that looked so fragile. Despite that, he thought it was an awesome looking machine. Mu whistled.

"It's even more impressive up close. How much time did it take you to get this made?"

"It's not quite finished Mu. The other machine isn't for me, but you're Zero still has a lot it can do for us. I would have brought another one over for you to use, but in this situation, I felt it best to let you keep flying a machine you already know rather than take a gamble on how fast you could learn how to control the Valkyrie."

Mu nodded, understanding his logic.

"It's alright Immortal. So how do you want to tackle this?"

"Follow us out, but keep to the support position. The best you could do in any case is pester the hell out of whichever G-Weapon they send after us."

Mu nodded, accepting his role even if he wasn't fond of it. Sophia stood beside it with a new flight suit. The sight of her made him cock his head to the side in confusion.

"Lieutenant DiFalco, what are you doing?"

Sophia gave him a thumbs up along with an abbreviated salute.

"Alexsander said that there were still a few things not yet worked out of the Valkyrie. He wanted me riding tandem in order to see what might be done. I am an engineer." Alex's smirk and short chuckle made them look to him.

"Not everything is as it seems Mu. Remember that." Sophia flinched and silently swore that he reveled in nearly revealing her real moniker.

"That's enough of that everyone. Let's move. Get to your machines. It's time for the curtain to rise on this act of the play."

The four nodded as they parted to board their machines. Sophia climbed up to the cockpit and quirked an eyebrow.

"Um, Alex, how am I supposed to accompany you without a seat?"

The man took his seat and flipped several switches before the back slid back and a new seat popped into place. Secondary controls folded out from panels and compartments as another HUD materialized from behind Alex's chair. She couldn't believe the difference in technology between the EA, Morgenroete, and Romania. She attributed that to the sheer number of battles they'd been involved in since their revolution.

"Unreal . . ." Taking her seat, the HUD lit up with several displays. "What's this?"

"The flight manual. I'm giving you this chance in order to learn the fighter more through experience rather than logistics. Be ready, she's a wild ride even by my squadron's standards."

Nodding, she watched the Zero being guided toward the launch catapult. The Strike walked over to stand-by in the opposing catapult. Guiding the Valkyrie into a taxi route, she could see the gauges shift and change to the movements Alex put the machine through. Glancing through a few of the paragraphs of information on her HUD, she swallowed.

"Are you nuts? A pair of PW-Mk. XII Phoenix powerplants? These weren't even on the production line two months ago! They're too unstable."

"This fighter doesn't come close to its full potential without them Kestrel. This fighter has to be able to operate efficiently in both space and the atmosphere. The PW-Mk. XII powerplants are the only ones that can do that at the moment. To get that level of performance through other means requires technology that we don't have access to."

Sophia wondered what he was talking about when they heard Mu's launch confirmation. Taking the Zero's place, they shook slightly as they locked into the catapult. Alex's voice startled her.

"Kestrel, just what was the highest G tolerance you were able to take in the Spearhead?"

"The Spearhead was capable of pushing nine easy, though it was rare for us to do so."

"Get ready for more than that."

Before she could ask, the force of the launch shoved her back into the seat with no room to scream. Shooting out of the launch bay like a rocket, the Valkyrie immediately shot into the air to join Mu and Kira. The two pilots immediately noticed the change in the Strike's weapon layout.

"He's using the Sword Striker Pack. Guess he's learned about the mistake of firing carelessly with the Launcher Pack."

Alex nodded silently in agreement as the three oddly teamed machines formed up on each other. Clicking over to universal frequency, Alex keyed in.

"Kira, how are you feeling?"

_"Nervous and scared out of my wits." _Mu could be heard laughing lightly. Sophia smirked at the comment as Alex drew nearer to the G-Weapon. _"What's so funny?"_

Looking closely over the Strike, Mu shook his head good naturedly.

"It's nothing much Kira. If you had said anything other than that we'd have both been paranoid to fly with you."

_"What do you mean Mu?"_

"What I mean is, those who don't fear make decisions and take actions they aren't ready for and usually end up dead. Even we're scared to go onto the battlefield. There is no guarantee we'll make it back alive."

_"But you guys are aces."_

_"Yes, but we're also very mortal Kira. As I said already, we bleed and die . . . we feel pain and loss . . . we feel fear. What separates us from the rest is how we react to that fear, those emotions and instincts. What makes us human is our ability to control those things."_

In the cockpit of the Strike, Kira nodded as he took in everything. The Sword Strike was a lot simpler when he looked over the weapons. The huge anti-ship sword, the Schwert Gewher was sitting patiently on its rack. The shield/rocket anchor was ready to go and Kira already knew more or less how to use it. It was the Midas Meiser beam boomerang that perked his curiosity. Exactly how it worked was obvious, but how they'd managed to work out the physics was beyond him at the moment.

* * *

**_Archangel _**

**_Bridge

* * *

_**

Murrue arrived just moments before the three machines launched. Looking around she took stock of Natarle and the rest of the bridge crew, but when she couldn't find Sophia, she spoke up.

"Where's Lieutenant DiFalco?"

Natarle didn't even move from her place in CIC.

"She's in that fighter the Immortal's flying."

Murrue shot up from her chair.

"She's _what_?!"

"Apparently, he sees her skills as an engineer and wanted her to ride shotgun to see what could be done about several issues with that machine of his."

Plopping down in her chair again, Murrue was dumbfounded and more than just a bit peeved.

_'I'm going to have to talk to 'His Highness' about this. That's an insane way to go about working out the kinks in a fighter!'_

The three machines formed up and began to slowly circle in a holding pattern between the _Stiletto _and the _Archangel_. No sooner had they made through their second pass, then a series explosions widened the area around the damaged area that Kira had blown away with the Agni.

"Here they come!"

"Prepare Igelstellungs. Load Korinthos!"

Marisa stepped in front of the chair Murrue sat in with crossed arms.

"Belay that Ensign. Keep weapons tight. _Stiletto, _weapons tight. Let the Commander, the Hawk of Endymion, and Kira handle this one. Hmm. Only three GINNs and . . . the Aegis, that could present a problem . . . wait a minute . . . are they packing their D configurations?!"

_"Unfortunately, you're right about that Marisa. I may have to reveal the other Modes."_

Marisa grimaced. Weighing factors in her head, she thought about the implications of revealing most of the Valkyrie's abilities so soon. On one hand, she knew that Alex would make heavy modifications to the fighter's core design and functions as time went on. She also knew that knowing about the fighter didn't do anything about the refit of the _Stiletto. _Nodding slowly, she hailed him with her answer.

"Only if you feel it necessary. I'll leave that decision up to you."

_"Understood, let's pray that it doesn't come to that."_

The GINNS charged toward the three collaborating machines. Miguel immediately rushed the Strike and fired a shot from its Barrus ion cannon. Kira sideslipped out of the way, the shot drilling itself into a nearby parking lot. A pair of missiles shot from the leg units of Matthew's suit toward the _Archangel_. Alex let Mu intercept them with his deploying gun barrels as he pushed toward the GINN with full military power. Sophia braced herself as she took in everything that Alex was putting the Valkyrie through.

"I can't believe the immediate change in power the engines have. This kind of response is unheard of!"

Alex didn't respond as Matthew fired his 76mm gun at him. Returning fire with his own machine guns, he pushed the fighter into a hard barrel roll, keeping the HUD gun sight as dead center of the ZAFT machine as possible. Sophia was used to the high G combat maneuver, but his concentration in keeping the sights so dead on was astonishing. Golden tracers from the GINN sprayed through the air, crisscrossing through the azure blue tracers of the Valkyrie.

Mu chuckled inside his cockpit as he kept a careful eye on the other GINN that wasn't engaging either of his fellow pilots.

"Still keeps that signature spiral of his. If he had gun barrels for that thing, those units would be blazing away from every other direction. Hm, that makes me wonder, does that machine have anything like that?" Bright flashes from the GINN and Strike diverted his attention toward the young teen in his second real taste of combat. "Looks like the kid really can hold his own despite it being his first time. He's playing it cautious, that's a good sign."

The Strike drew back from another shot from Miguel and boosted toward his opponent with the Schwert Gewher, missing by feet as Miguel dipped to the left and lined up another shot. The ion beam splattered against the beam shield/anchor combo that Kira brought between the two of them. Not used to combat, Kira fell back slightly out of control from the impact. The Strike's boosters flared wildly as he regained control. The smoke and dust from the impact blocked the Strike from Miguel's view. Inside his cockpit, the Magic Bullet of Dusk grinned in smug victory.

"Serves you right Natural. There's no way a Natural could . . ."

Over the open channel, he heard Kira's guttural scream a split second before he saw the Strike rush out of the smoke with the giant anti-ship beam sword at the ready. The blade swung upward, cleaving the barrel clean off before continuing through the arm, dissecting it from the shoulder before Kira brought the weapon back down through the cockpit from left to right. Miguel screamed as the energy blade slashed through the cockpit and into him before disintegrating him and exiting the GINN before the Mobile Suit exploded in a ball of orange and red flames. Mu stared at the spectacle as a chill ran down his spine. From his angle, the darkened silhouette of the Strike only had one stand out feature. The eerie glow of its emerald eye sensors and the violent maroon blade.

Some distance away from the fire fight, Athrun was watching form the Aegis with an astonished eye.

"What is that thing? It's so fast, and the pilot can't possibly be a Natural! There's no way they can intentionally fly like that."

_"Athrun, if you face that machine in the Aegis you have the advantage armor and firepower wise, but it's far more agile. If the pilot's who I think it is . . . if you value your life, you'll never drop your guard. Retreat if you must."_

_"Why? Who would threaten us in these suits with a fighter?"_

_"The Immortal. Only his squadron dared to carry that paint scheme. Romania is not to be trifled with Athrun."_

Athrun suddenly recalled the single warning that Shiho had given him moments before he deployed to follow the three man strike team. The look Shiho had in her eyes told him everything. She had fought him before and survived. At the time she hurried him along without him asking just how the heck she'd ended up on the wrong end of the Immortal's guns. Now he was watching that what could be that very person.

Inside his GINN, Matthew was cursing as he barely continued to avoid getting skewered by the high speed machine guns.

"Olor! This thing's a demon, help me out damn it!"

"Hold on Matthew, geez, fire in the hole!"

Olor readied his 500mm Cattus recoilless rifle and fired. Inside the Valkyrie, Sophia clenched her teeth as she heard lock on warnings blare in the cockpit. She managed to catch a glimpse of the GINN flanking them just as Alex snapped out of the barrel roll with a sharp snap roll. A small burst from Matthew's gun grazed the paint and Alex grunted in annoyance. The sound of Kira's scream followed a bare moment afterward by an explosion made the ZAFT pilots and Alex and Sophia turn their eyes toward the same thing that Mu shivered slightly at.

Athrun was horrified. "Miguel!!!"

Alexsander swallowed as he took the chance to veer about to gain an advantage over Matthew. Sophia outright gaped at the boy's first real kill.

"My god."

"Damn it, I knew he'd be dangerous if he ever got into a Mobile Suit, but this is a full fledged nightmare. One-on-one combat against ZAFT GINNs in an experimental model and he slaughters it with ease."

By the time he came around, Matthew and Olor were both charging for revenge. Matthew opened up with a set of missiles and a hasty burst from his machine gun. Olor fired with recoilless rifle with reckless abandon, their mission forgotten. Inside his cockpit, Kira was riding on auto-pilot. His instincts, his fight or flight nerves were firing like a wildfire. Dipping down, he let loose a string of Igelstellungs from the head mounted guns, piercing the first two missiles before dodging the final one and bringing up his shield to block the fire from Olor.

"Hang on Kira."

Sophia's attention perked when a dozen lock-on signals lit up one of the GINNs like a Christmas tree before twelve missiles shot out from around the fighter's body and screamed toward their target. Olor never knew what hit him until a millisecond before hand. All of the micro explosives found their marks, ripping the Mobile Suit apart like pirhanas from hell.

Athrun gripped his control so hard, he could feel his bones creaking in protest. Gunning the Aegis forward he charged the Valkyrie as Matthew, knowing that the Valkyrie was behind him, continued to charge in the attempt to take out the Strike regardless of the cost. Kira darted right of the shots that he fired and pulled the Midas Meiser from its shoulder holder and threw the weapon.

"You think that'll stop me?!"

Matthew thrusted up and over the boomerang, not realizing just what it was, nor who was behind him. Alex saw him climb above the weapon, leaving them in the path of the boomerang. Sophia gasped as her eyes grew wide as the glowing weapon drew closer. Clenching his jaw shut, Alex knew that there was only one way to avoid it. Clicking a switch under his left thumb on the throttle, he flipped the level up to a vertical position to match the stick in his right. Pulling back on both sticks, he pointed his toes to the floor panels on his yawl controls and twitched his fingers in a rapid series of movements. Sophia tensed as they suddenly rose straight into the air and over the boomerang. Her guts felt like they were going to flip flop as she felt a rush of backward movement. Her mind was racing a mile a minute.

_'What the heck did Alex just do?'_

Looking forward, she was stunned, they were now behind the Aegis that had been closing in on them from above and behind. Alex opened fire with the machine guns without hesitation even though he knew that they wouldn't harm the G-Weapon. Athrun felt the same as the crew of the _Archangel _and Mu as he threw himself into an evasive pattern despite his Phase Shift..

"What the hell?! The exhaust ports turned into legs!"

Athrun gritted his teeth as he turned to face the Immortal with the Aegis' 60mm beam rifle. Before he could take a bead, Athrun felt the sudden need to move from his current position, and fast. He only just skimmed Kira's beam boomerang by a foot or two as it returned to its owner after having reached as far as it would go. The green eyed pilot instantly knew what was about to happen and turned to face the Strike and GINN.

"Matthew! Behind you!!"

Athrun's warning came too late as the boomerang caught the ZAFT green in the back before sawing right through him and back to the Strike's hand – Matthew never had a moment to scream. Alex wore a grim expression.

"Kira Yamato. Seems my Father's hunches were right. You're a person to be reckoned with. Three kills with no experience or training . . . it's mind boggling."

Marisa ground her teeth in silence. Finally seeing Kira in action, she began to understand Alex's fears. The final kill had partially been due to the weapon's design, but a kill was still a kill. Murrue fairly gawked at the carnage.

"Is that really the Strike with Kira at the controls?"

"He's unreal. We've never seen GINNs go down that fast. But more surprising is that move the Immortal made."

People looked in Marisa's direction and she shrugged nonchalantly.

"That's not for you to worry about. All of the masterminds at Romanian Armor Masters have been developing this for the past seven months. Even I don't fully understand everything the fighter's capable of. Alex hasn't even begun to truly push the machine to the limit. Then again, he's also playing it cautious. He doesn't want our enemy to fully comprehend its abilities."

Back out in the colony, Athrun engaged Alex in the Aegis with the 60mm beam rifle. Alex veered hard to the right and then put the fighter into spiral, dropping twenty feet in an instant to avoid a second beam. Sophia swore through clenched teeth as she toughed the wicked Gs. Mu stayed to the rear, watching from the Zero in awe.

"He was good in a Zero, but this Valkyrie is pulling maneuvers that would break any other machine like it. I wonder how the Lieutenant is doing. I sure hope she hasn't lost her lunch in there."

Athrun stowed the rifle, ignited all four of the Aegis's beam sabers as he did so. Charging at the swerving Valkyrie. Kira was stupefied.

"This is his piloting skill? Who flies a fighter like that? That's not human."

Indeed Athrun was thinking much the same. Swooping at him from above, he slashed, thinking for sure that the fighter was about to become his first kill in the G-Weapon. The fighter instantly pointed its nose at the suit and spat death at him. Bringing the shield up out of reflex, he flicked two kicks out in hopes of lancing the fighter. Alex kicked the fighter into a back flip. The first blade grazed the underside of the nose cone while the second golden blade of energy slashed through the fuschia colored exhaust of the engines.

"This is the Immortal?! He's a monster!" Slashing down with the arm beam sabers, the blades passed through air as Alex tilted the fighter on its axis, knife edging the fighter so the weapons passed by the belly of the Valkyrie. Before either pilot could make another move, a vermilion beam shot between them, forcing Alex to jet away to recover.

"Which machine is it?!"

Arcing his head over his shoulder, he saw the final prototype, the GAT-X 107 Wildflower with its beam rifle aimed at him. Sophia was about to be sick as she rested her head on her HUD. She could barely register his voice as he tried to hail her.

_'Such fast maneuvers in such close quarter combat in a fighter and with no error to boot, just what is Alex? Is he like what Doctor Metzinger was trying to do with Falcon? Is Alexsander Romania's Der Schreckick Eins?'_

"Lieutenant!!"

"Huh?"

"DiFalco, talk to me! What's the specs on the Wildflower?! You're little toy's decided to come back to play and it's playing for keeps!"

She jerked in her seat as he spun the plane and pulled a harsh, 9G turn to dodge a pair of shots from the Wildflower's beam rifle. Straining to see over her shoulder, she paled when she saw the very Mobile Suit she had designed gunning for her own blood. The shield was in play with the rifle aiming at them through the barrel port.

Mu could see the problem and immediately saw that the best he could do was keep an eye on both machines as they engaged so Alex wouldn't be at such a huge disadvantage.

"Kid! Help Alexsander! His machine's insane, but it's got no way to damage a G-Weapon. Against one, he might wear it out, but against two, even he's a goner and he knows it! You're the only thing we've got kid!"

Kira snapped out of his stupor and pushed power into his verniers. Charging at the Wildflower, he swung down with the anti-ship sword's massive blade. Kira's eyes went wide as his attack met nothing but air.

"What?"

"Kira! Duck!!"

Dipping the Strike, a vermilion beam shot through the spot he was just at. On the Wildflower, Shiho blinked in surprise. Glancing about, she saw the Zero in the air and frowned.

"Athrun, you handle the Strike. I've got that fighter covered."

"R-roger." Athrun was still a bit stunned, but turned to take on the Strike as she stowed her rifle and drew the Balsam high frequency blade. Saluting once, she threw the G-Weapon at Alex's machine.

"Is that you Gray Demon?"

Alex's voice made her take on a grim visage.

"It is Immortal. That machine of yours, along with the refit _Stiletto_ – at least I think that's what it is – are too dangerous to let go here."

Inside his cockpit, he was ignoring the questioning that Sophia was putting him through. Pushing the plane into a Pugachev's Cobra, he stared at the fast approaching Wildflower.

"I see. Sophia, what are the specs on that sword?"

Sophia stopped her questioning long enough to swallow.

"It's a high frequency vibro-blade. But that's not the only thing."

Alex jetted upward as Shiho slashed empty space. As he climbed, the Wildflower thrust its weapon to the sky.

_'What is she doing?'_

"Alex! Behind you!"

Mu's warning came too late as Sophia and Alex jerked forward violently in their restraints. Warning alarms blared and the displays of the Valkyrie went an angry red. Kira and Athrun paused in their stand off, the two of them too worried about who was in their opponent's suits. The sight made them temporarily forget their current concerns.

"What is that?!"

The blade was long and serpentine, bladed segments were connected by a flexible construction of materials. Alex glared behind him as he pushed the Valkyrie's engine to the redline.

"Sophia, what is that?!"

"It's the Balsam whip sword, I knew range was an issue with swords and having flexibility is a plus, so I didn't have any second thoughts about it."

"You do realize that it just may get us killed here right?"

Sophia chose to keep silent as they were rocked and buffeted around as their machine was slung down toward a set of abandoned buildings. Kira knocked Athrun back with a shield charge before rushing to their aid.

"Alex!"

As they were slung toward the ground, Alex ignored the warning alarms and altitude alerts in addition to Sophia's choice expletive. Catching a glimpse of the _Archangel_ he knew Marisa was watching with hard eyes. They both knew that the whole plan they'd laid out was falling apart, and all they had now was improvisation. Hardening his resolve, he drew back both of his vertical control sticks and spoke a voice command into his mic.

"Awaken battle maiden Valkyrie!"

Sophia caught a glimpse of a message flashing across her HUD.

**_Dark warriors come unto me. Battle awaits us. Romanian Armor Masters _****Valkyrie _mode 3, Knight Mode activated._**

Sophia gasped as a humanoid diagram appeared in the place of the plane weapon grid. The gatling gun pod on the under belly traced over to the right hand. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

"It can't be . . . you created a transforming armor with a working OS for . . . ARGH!"

The Valkyrie shifted and warped, the exhausts becoming legs, the intakes and sides split away to form arms, wings folded back and a head unit popped into place. They slammed into the remnants of a blown out building just as the transformation completed. The blade retracted back to its sword form and Shiho cast a grim glare at the dissipating smoke.

"What in the world as the Immortal created?"

Inside the legged ship, Murrue and Natarle were standing in shock. Marisa wore a pleased grin despite her concerned thoughts of both Alex's safety, and the secrecy of the Valkyrie's ability to take different forms. Rachelle winced knowing that the impact from landing had to have been brutal.

"That thing turns into a Mobile Suit?"

"It's not a Mobile Suit, it's a Variable Fighter from Romania. It won't operate anything like one either. For one, it doesn't carry the heavy firepower that the G-Weapons do. They're fragile and with the advent of Phase Shift, lack a means to punch through it. What the machines do have are adaptability and maneuverability so extreme that only those with the highest kinesthesia scores and excellent physical condition can push the Valkyrie to its limits. The only way Alex will make it out of this is to outlast the G-Weapons's battery charges."

Rachelle's explanation of the newest weapon from Romania made Murrue think hard about just what they were doing.

_'From the sounds of it, only a select few can hope to effectively pilot their fighter, so it won't be mass produced. Against standard Mobile Suits, Romania's new fighter is pure slaughter. Alex gave the Aegis a run for its money and it was supposed to be the command unit.'_

A burst of azure gunfire from the ground made the Wildflower back away with its shield between them. Out of the rubble rose the Valkyrie with a missile shaped gatling gun in its hands. Shiho had an idea of what she was facing in the gatling gun, but she wasn't chancing anything.

"It's well designed and constructed to take that kind of impact. I don't want to prolong this."

Stowing the Balsam sword, she brought the beam rifle back into play just as Kira charged headlong with another scream. The giant beam blade slashed through empty space and Shiho immediately prioritized the energy weapons of the Strike as the greater threat. Boomerang flew from the Strike's hand again and Shiho ducked out of the way as she wasted no time flying in another direction after seeing the end result of the projectile's return path.

Alex glanced in the direction the boomerang was going before readying support shots for Kira when something out of the corner of his eye took his mind off of the three G-Weapons for something far more urgent. Sophia saw it at the same instant and her guts went cold as she realized that it was too late. Midas Meiser tore into the destroyed GINNs intact missile pods, activating their launching sequences and spitting out their cargo.

"They're going to destroy the support shaft if they hit!" Clicking over his controls, his eyes raced over each missile for a split second before he keyed his weapons. A dull hum made him flinch as he glanced at his HUD. He had no missiles. Mu engaged the wayward explosive darts with his gun barrels, but wasn't able to catch two of them. Unfortunately, those two scored direct hits on the main shaft of Heliopolis.

The entire colony shuddered as the support cracked and splintered. The groan that echoed through the bowls of the space installation made everyone cease worrying about their opponents and focus on Heliopolis. Before Sophia could realize what happened, Alex had returned to fighter mode and was jetting toward the _Archangel._ Mu was already anchored to the hull when Alex brought the Valkyrie up beside the Zero and anchored himself to the hull as well.

Kira and Athrun weren't as lucky as they were sucked out different breaches in the colony. Shiho grit her teeth and put everything she had into not getting smashed by the chaotic storm of debris as everything was sucked into space.

Heliopolis . . . neutral colony of Orb, shattered like glass.

* * *

**Heliopolis is gone and the Valkyrie's transforming ability has been exposed. The explosive first clash has concluded. But how will things go when the _Archangel _and everyone on board arrive at the Umbrella of Artemis?**


End file.
